scansite

Scansite Case Study #178
Reproducing two 17th century marble statues.
Metropolitain Museum of Art, New York City

Problems and Opportunities: Two marble statues were commissioned by Roman Catholic Cardinal Scipio Borghese circa 1614. The statues are sanitized copies of pagan Greek originals.

The statues were executed in the studio of Pietro Bernini, the less talented father of the great Baroque architect and sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernin (1598-1680). The younger Bernini worked on these statues in his father's studio, and one of the statues is signed by him.

The statues themselves were nearly eight feet tall, but could not be removed from their four foot high bases; thus the scanning was done at heights of up to twelve feet above the floor.

Downstram Application: The client wanted to make replicas of the statues. The replicas were to be milled from foam using a 5-axis CNC mill. The foam patterm would then be used to make a plaster copy which would be carved to add more detail.

Solution:

The scanning was done using a laser scanner on a 12 foot CMM arm. Over 6 million data points were acquired.The scanning technicians were not permitted to pysically touch the statues during the scanning process. Even scratches and graffiti were captured by the laser scanner-even the letters"GB" where Bernini signed his work.

Satellite's CNC software divided the job into milling tasks. The pattern was then cut at full size with a 5-axis CNC router.

Kelly Hand with the milled foam patern The milling was done by Scansite's strategic partner, Satellite models. The foam pattern is now ready for mold making. The mold will be used to make a plaster copy. More detail will then be added to the plaster copy.