The 3D register as a means for the analysis and dissemination of the sculptural heritage. The case of the wax sculpture of the Ecorché

Abstract

The application of 3D registration technologies in the field of the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage is a tool and a procedure of great potential that, today, is essential for the documentation and planning of an intervention; especially if it is sculptural-ornamental material. In the last decade, these technologies have experienced strong and rapid grows, which led to the appearance of a multitude of precise tools with different properties of manageability and level of resolution in the market. This work shows the 3D registration procedure carried out on a copy of the Houdon Écorché, a real sculpture made of wax, which is exposed in the hall of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Polytechnic University of Valencia. For the registration process a high-performance white light portable laser scanner, model GoScan3D from Creaform Company, has been used. Likewise, the different factors involved in the registration of the work and derived from the technology used itself with respect to the characteristics of the piece have been analysed (such as size, composition, brightness, state of conservation, triangulation, resolution, reverberation of the surface of the work in contact with the light of the scanner, absorption of dark colours and positioning in relation to the surface of the work). Similarly, the collected data using the VXelements software have been interpreted and subsequently optimized. The results show the versatility of the tool and the quality of the 3d registration, improving the analysis processes and the diffusion of the artwork in virtual and interactive media.