FACTUM ARTE

Facsimile of Sala Bologna
Vatican City, 2011

Factum Arte was commissioned to record and produce a facsimile of the Sala Bologna in Vatican City by the Museo della Città. The work was carried out with permission from the Vatican Museums during four days in May 2011. The facsimile of the south wall, containing the map of the city of Bologna, has been installed in the Palazzo Pepoli Vecchio in Bologna in the second week of October. The complete room was recorded using a panoramic system designed by Dr. Clauss and a section of the south wall was scanned in three dimensions.

The Museo della Città opens to the public on the 27th January, 2012. Factum Arte's facsimile of the map of Bologna is already causing a great deal of interest. The publication on the history of the Sala Bologna, edited by Nadja Aksamija and Francesco Cecerelli has just been published by Marsilli (more information here). Read Mapping a Map: Factum Arte at the Sala Bologna in Texts, here.

Factum Arte sent its core recording team to carry out the work in the Sala Bologna,
close to the Popes private apartment. The team consisted of Adam Lowe,
Gregoire Dupond, Pedro Miro, Gabriel Scarpa and Miguel Guillén.

Back in Madrid the epic task of processing all the data, producing the panoramic and high-resolution archives, routing, printing, making the facsimile and designing the installation and the lighting for it, in the Museo della Città, has been ongoing since May 2011.

Ensuring the facsimile has exactly the same colour, tone and reflectivity as the original
is essential. Colour matching using physical samples mixed on site
is a central part of Factum Arte's proceedure.

The mixture of surface information and high-resolution printed image is essential
for the realism of the facsimile. This image shows a section of a routed panel
recorded at 150 microns and routed at 300 microns.

All colour data is printed and compared to the colour matches taken in site

The facsimile, measuring about 6 x 9 meters, is made on
an aluminium structure with lightweight Alucore panels.

All printing is done onto Factum Arte's specially produced flexible gesso surface and printed
in layers on the flatbed printer which is at the heart of much of the work carried out
in the cerntral Madrid workshop. All the printing on this project was done by Rafa Rachewsky
from files prepared by Grégoire Dupond, Gabriel Scarpa and Blanca Nieto among others.

The detailed 'printed' layer of flexible gesso is attached to the undulating surface of the wall.

Proofing the joints.

Tests for the golden areas of the south wall.

A map helps locate the areas with golden roofs.

The finished facsimile in Factum Arte's warehouse, before being shipped to Bologna.

The facsimile of the south wall of the Sala Bologna containing the spectacular map of Bologna was completed and the finalised facsimile installed in the Museo della Città in October 2011.

Visit the Digital restoration of the Map of Bologna