Creating a 'Total Environment' for the 'Caligula' in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond, VA)

FAIN: RZ-51221-10

University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA 22903-4833)
Bernard D. Frischer (Project Director: November 2009 to November 2014)

Study of a statue of the Roman emperor Caligula, as well as dissemination of the study's results through a conference and a website. (18 months)

An international team has the goal of increasing scholarly and public understanding of one of the most important works of Roman art in a US museum: the monumental statue of the Emperor Caligula in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The VMFA statue is the best-preserved surviving portrait of Caligula. The proposed project takes advantage of new discoveries throwing light on the statue's hitherto unknown ancient context as well as new technologies making it possible for the team to recover such key but uncertain features as the orientation of the head, which had been broken off the body; the hands, which are missing; and the colors, which can no longer be seen. We cannot understand the statue until these expressive features have been restored to it. The project will: (1) undertake new technical, historical, and interpretative studies of the statue; (2) present preliminary findings at a public conference; and (3) make the final results available at no cost over the Internet.

Associated Products

The Digital Sculpture Project: Caligula (Web Resource)
Title: The Digital Sculpture Project: Caligula
Author: Bernard Frischer
Abstract: The focus of this URL is the statue of Caligual now at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. The website overall is devoted to studying ways in which 3D digital technologies can be applied to the capture, representation and interpretation of sculpture from all periods and cultures. Up to now, 3D technologies have been used in fruitful ways to represent geometrically simple artifacts such as pottery or larger-scale structures such as buildings and entire cities. With some notable exceptions, sculpture has been neglected by digital humanists. The Digital Sculpture Project will fill this gap by focusing on the following issues: •3D data capture and documentation •Digital restoration •Digital tools for the processing and analysis of digitized sculpture, including colorization •Analysis of earlier forms of sculptural reproduction, particularly the cast.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://www.digitalsculpture.org/caligula/index.html
Primary URL Description: Project website

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