Castiglia Museum in Saluzzo

Reproducing an entire museum collection is equivalent to face a range of situations that requires a highly diversified approach.

The key aspect of the collection is the absence of the collection itself. Indeed, the Museum of Chivalric Society does not own physically the exposed finds. For this reason, it has been necessary to create hundreds of items from scratch, based on the actual artefact or archive information.

Coins, books, ornaments, capitals, busts, sarcophaguses, statues of both smaller and larger size, even buildings to be reproduced in scale. Each one with its own document bases, their more or less accessible findings, stored in different locations.

Most of the sculptural elements were reproduced throughout three steps: 3D scanning, 3D modelling and 3D printing, using a combination of techniques in order to meet the specific needs of each finding.

The multidisciplinary team of Protocube defined a very complex work-flow, which includes different kinds of operations to be performed, for instance data acquisition, 3D modelling and the reproduction of several kinds of items. The combination of technologies such as laser scanner acquisition and organic and hard surface modelling, allows to obtain digital models for the reproduction with 3D printings in high resolution and full colour.

The adoption of a hybrid work-flow also allowed to evaluate the use of “traditional” technologies such as CNC milling, used in cases where proved to have more advantages than additive technologies.

The reproduction of the collection of the Castiglia Museum in Saluzzo is the classic example of how expertise and experience in the field of 3D for Cultural Heritage offer the possibility to easier manage projects that are extremely complex.

Frieze depicting a battle scene, in which two opposing knights fight. The image summarizes the three steps of development, starting from the acquisition of the 3D scanning (point cloud), the optimization of the rebuilt mesh and the 3D printing of the model with textures.

The collection of the Museum of Chivalric Society consists of very heterogeneous elements, as in the case of this capital. This made necessary an extremely detailed process of scanning and modelling, in order to effectively restore the minutia of details that make it up.

The case study of the Castiglia Museum in Saluzzo was presented at many events dedicated to 3D for Cultural Heritage, both for informational and technical aspects, which have been subject of very thorough workshops.

As for the software used, during the implementation of this work, several solutions have been used, among which we can report Geomagics for the acquisition phases, Rhinoceros for the 3D modelling and Magics for the optimization and slicing of the 3D models to be printed.

Sculptures, coins, books, and also real buildings that have characterized the civilization experience in the Middle Ages chivalry.

The reconstruction of the buildings conceptually involved the same process of the rest of the collection. In this case, the specific technologies used change, in the other hand acquisition, modelling and 3D printing are a constant when it comes to reproduce findings in the field of Cultural Heritage.

The Museum of Chivalric Society can be found at Castello dei Marchesi in Saluzzo (CN).