The secret lives of paintings
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0:01 - 0:05In 1975, I met in Florence a professor, Carlo Pedretti,
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0:05 - 0:08my former professor of art history, and today
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0:08 - 0:13a world-renowned scholar of Leonardo da Vinci.
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0:13 - 0:17Well, he asked me if I could find some technological way
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0:17 - 0:20to unfold a five-centuries-old mystery related to
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0:20 - 0:23a lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci,
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0:23 - 0:26the "Battle of Anghiari," which is supposed to be located
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0:26 - 0:29in the Hall of the 500 in Palazzo Vecchio, in Florence.
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0:29 - 0:32Well, in the mid-'70s, there were not great opportunities
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0:32 - 0:36for a bioengineer like me, especially in Italy, and so
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0:36 - 0:40I decided, with some researchers from the United States
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0:40 - 0:44and the University of Florence, to start probing the murals
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0:44 - 0:48decorated by Vasari on the long walls of the Hall of the 500
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0:48 - 0:51searching for the lost Leonardo.
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0:51 - 0:54Unfortunately, at that time we did not know that
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0:54 - 0:58that was not exactly where we should be looking,
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0:58 - 1:03because we had to go much deeper in, and so the research
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1:03 - 1:07came to a halt, and it was only taken up in 2000
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1:07 - 1:11thanks to the interest and the enthusiasm of the Guinness family.
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1:11 - 1:14Well, this time, we focused on trying to reconstruct
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1:14 - 1:17the way the Hall of the 500 was before the remodeling,
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1:17 - 1:21and the so-called Sala Grande, which was built in 1494,
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1:21 - 1:24and to find out the original doors, windows,
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1:24 - 1:29and in order to do that, we first created a 3D model,
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1:29 - 1:32and then, with thermography, we went on to discover
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1:32 - 1:35hidden windows. These are the original windows of the hall
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1:35 - 1:39of the Sala Grande. We also found out about the height
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1:39 - 1:42of the ceiling, and we managed to reconstruct, therefore,
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1:42 - 1:45all the layout of this original hall
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1:45 - 1:48the way it was before there came Vasari,
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1:48 - 1:51and restructured the whole thing,
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1:51 - 1:54including a staircase that was very important
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1:54 - 1:58in order to precisely place "The Battle of Anghiari"
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1:58 - 2:02on a specific area of one of the two walls.
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2:02 - 2:06Well, we also learned that Vasari, who was commissioned
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2:06 - 2:10to remodel the Hall of the 500 between 1560 and 1574
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2:10 - 2:14by the Grand Duke Cosimo I of the Medici family,
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2:14 - 2:18we have at least two instances when he saved masterpieces
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2:18 - 2:21specifically by placing a brick wall in front of it
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2:21 - 2:24and leaving a small air gap.
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2:24 - 2:27One that we [see] here, Masaccio, the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence,
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2:27 - 2:30so we just said, well maybe, Visari has done something
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2:30 - 2:34like that in the case of this great work of art by Leonardo,
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2:34 - 2:36since he was a great admirer of Leonardo da Vinci.
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2:36 - 2:41And so we built some very sophisticated radio antennas
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2:41 - 2:46just for probing both walls and searching for an air gap.
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2:46 - 2:51And we did find many on the right panel of the east wall,
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2:51 - 2:53an air gap, and that's where
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2:53 - 2:55we believe "The Battle of Anghiari,"
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2:55 - 2:57or at least the part that we know has been painted,
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2:57 - 3:00which is called "The Fight for the Standard," should be located.
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3:00 - 3:04Well, from there, unfortunately,
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3:04 - 3:06in 2004, the project
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3:06 - 3:10came to a halt. Many political reasons.
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3:10 - 3:12So I decided to go back to my alma mater,
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3:12 - 3:15and, at the University of California, San Diego,
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3:15 - 3:17and I proposed to open up a research center
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3:17 - 3:20for engineering sciences for cultural heritage.
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3:20 - 3:24And in 2007, we created CISA3 as a research center
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3:24 - 3:27for cultural heritage, specifically art, architecture
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3:27 - 3:30and archaeology. So students started to flow in,
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3:30 - 3:32and we started to build technologies, because that's
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3:32 - 3:35basically what we also needed in order to move forward
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3:35 - 3:37and go and do fieldwork.
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3:37 - 3:42We came back in the Hall of the 500 in 2011,
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3:42 - 3:46and this time, with a great group of students,
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3:46 - 3:48and my colleague, Professor Falko Kuester,
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3:48 - 3:51who is now the director at CISA3, and we
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3:51 - 3:55came back just since we knew already where to look for
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3:55 - 3:58to find out if there was still something left.
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3:58 - 4:02Well, we were confined though, limited, I should rather say,
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4:02 - 4:05for several reasons that it's not worth explaining,
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4:05 - 4:09to endoscopy only, of the many other options we had,
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4:09 - 4:12and with a 4mm camera attached to it,
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4:12 - 4:17we were successful in documenting and taking
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4:17 - 4:22some fragments of what it turns out to be
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4:22 - 4:26a reddish color, black color, and there is some
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4:26 - 4:29beige fragments that later on
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4:29 - 4:32we ran a much more sophisticated exams,
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4:32 - 4:37XRF, X-ray diffraction, and the results are very positive
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4:37 - 4:40so far. It seems to indicate that indeed
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4:40 - 4:43we have found some pigments, and since we know for sure
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4:43 - 4:45that no other artist has painted on that wall
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4:45 - 4:49before Vasari came in about 60 years later, well,
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4:49 - 4:52those pigments are therefore firmly related to mural painting
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4:52 - 4:54and most likely to Leonardo.
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4:54 - 4:59Well, we are searching for the highest and highly praised
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4:59 - 5:02work of art ever achieved by mankind.
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5:02 - 5:06As a matter of fact, this is by far the most important
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5:06 - 5:08commission that Leonardo has ever had,
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5:08 - 5:13and for doing this great masterpiece, he was named
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5:13 - 5:18the number one artist influence at the time.
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5:18 - 5:21I had also had the privilege since the last 37 years
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5:21 - 5:25to work on several masterpieces as you can see behind me,
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5:25 - 5:28but basically to do what? Well, to assess, for example,
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5:28 - 5:31the state of conservation. See here the face of the
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5:31 - 5:35Madonna of the Chair that when just shining a UV light on it
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5:35 - 5:38you suddenly see another, different lady,
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5:38 - 5:40aged lady, I should rather say.
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5:40 - 5:44There is a lot of varnish still sitting there, several retouches,
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5:44 - 5:47and some over cleaning. It becomes very visible.
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5:47 - 5:51But also, technology has helped to write new pages
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5:51 - 5:54of our history, or at least to update pages of our histories.
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5:54 - 5:56For example, the "Lady with the Unicorn,"
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5:56 - 5:58another painting by Rafael, well, you see the unicorn.
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5:58 - 6:01A lot has been said and written about the unicorn, but
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6:01 - 6:04if you take an X-ray of the unicorn, it becomes a puppy dog.
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6:04 - 6:09And — (Laughter) — no problem, but, unfortunately,
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6:09 - 6:11continuing with the scientific examination of this painting
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6:11 - 6:14came out that Rafael did not paint the unicorn,
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6:14 - 6:17did not paint the puppy dog, actually left the painting
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6:17 - 6:22unfinished, so all this writing about the exotic symbol
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6:22 - 6:25of the unicorn — (Laughter) — unfortunately,
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6:25 - 6:28is not very reliable. (Laughter)
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6:28 - 6:30Well, also, authenticity. Just think for a moment
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6:30 - 6:35if science really could move in the field of authenticity
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6:35 - 6:38of works of art. There would be a cultural revolution
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6:38 - 6:41to say the least, but also, I would say, a market revolution,
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6:41 - 6:44let me add. Take this example:
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6:44 - 6:47Otto Marseus, nice painting, which is "Still Life"
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6:47 - 6:51at the Pitti Gallery, and just have an infrared camera peering through,
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6:51 - 6:55and luckily for art historians, it just was confirmed
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6:55 - 6:58that there is a signature of Otto Marseus. It even says
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6:58 - 7:01when it was made and also the location.
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7:01 - 7:05So that was a good result. Sometimes, it's not that good,
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7:05 - 7:10and so, again, authenticity and science could go together
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7:10 - 7:15and change the way, not attributions being made,
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7:15 - 7:18but at least lay the ground for a more objective,
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7:18 - 7:22or, I should rather say, less subjective attribution,
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7:22 - 7:25as it is done today.
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7:25 - 7:28But I would say the discovery that really caught
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7:28 - 7:32my imagination, my admiration, is the incredibly vivid
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7:32 - 7:36drawing under this layer, brown layer,
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7:36 - 7:39of "The Adoration of the Magi." Here you see
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7:39 - 7:44a handmade setting XYZ scanner with an infrared camera put on it,
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7:44 - 7:47and just peering through this brown layer
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7:47 - 7:49of this masterpiece to reveal
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7:49 - 7:52what could have been underneath.
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7:52 - 7:55Well, this happens to be the most important painting
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7:55 - 7:57we have in Italy by Leonardo da Vinci, and
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7:57 - 8:02look at the wonderful images of faces that nobody has seen
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8:02 - 8:06for five centuries. Look at these portraits.
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8:06 - 8:08They're magnificent. You see Leonardo at work.
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8:08 - 8:12You see the geniality of his creation, right directly
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8:12 - 8:15on the ground layer of the panel, and see
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8:15 - 8:21this cool thing, finding, I should rather say,
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8:21 - 8:24an elephant. (Laughter) Because of this elephant,
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8:24 - 8:28over 70 new images came out, never seen for centuries.
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8:28 - 8:31This was an epiphany. We came to understand
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8:31 - 8:35and to prove that the brown coating that we see today
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8:35 - 8:38was not done by Leonardo da Vinci, which left us
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8:38 - 8:40only the other drawing that for five centuries
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8:40 - 8:45we were not able to see, so thanks only to technology.
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8:45 - 8:50Well, the tablet. Well, we thought, well, if we all have
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8:50 - 8:53this pleasure, this privilege to see all this,
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8:53 - 8:56to find all these discoveries, what about for everybody else?
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8:56 - 8:59So we thought of an augmented reality application
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8:59 - 9:03using a tablet. Let me show you just simulating
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9:03 - 9:07what we could be doing, any of us could be doing,
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9:07 - 9:09in a museum environment.
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9:09 - 9:13So let's say that we go to a museum with a tablet, okay?
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9:13 - 9:17And we just aim the camera of the tablet
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9:17 - 9:23to the painting that we are interested to see, like this.
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9:23 - 9:29Okay? And I will just click on it, we pause,
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9:29 - 9:33and now let me turn to you so the moment the image,
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9:33 - 9:36or, I should say, the camera, has locked in the painting,
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9:36 - 9:39then the images you just saw up there in the drawing
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9:39 - 9:43are being loaded. And so, see.
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9:43 - 9:46We can, as we said, we can zoom in. Then we can scroll.
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9:46 - 9:51Okay? Let's go and find the elephant.
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9:51 - 9:55So all we need is one finger. Just wipe off
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9:55 - 9:59and we see the elephant. (Applause)
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9:59 - 10:03(Applause)
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10:03 - 10:05Okay? And then if we want,
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10:05 - 10:08we can continue the scroll to find out, for example,
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10:08 - 10:12on the staircase, the whole iconography is going
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10:12 - 10:15to be changed. There are a lot of laymen reconstructing
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10:15 - 10:17from the ruins of an old temple a new temple,
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10:17 - 10:21and there are a lot of figures showing up. See?
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10:21 - 10:24This is not just a curiosity, because it changes
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10:24 - 10:27not just the iconography as you see it, but the iconology,
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10:27 - 10:30the meaning of the painting,
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10:30 - 10:33and we believe this is a cool way, easy way,
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10:33 - 10:36that everybody could have access to, to become more
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10:36 - 10:39the protagonist of your own discovery, and not just
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10:39 - 10:42be so passive about it, as we are when we walk through
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10:42 - 10:46endless rooms of museums.
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10:46 - 10:52(Applause)
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10:52 - 10:55Another concept is the digital clinical chart, which sounds
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10:55 - 10:58very obvious if we were to talk about real patients,
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10:58 - 11:00but when we talk about works of art, unfortunately,
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11:00 - 11:02it's never been tapped as an idea.
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11:02 - 11:05Well, we believe, again, that this should be the beginning,
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11:05 - 11:07the very first step, to do real conservation,
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11:07 - 11:11and allowing us to really explore and to understand
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11:11 - 11:14everything related to the state of our conservation,
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11:14 - 11:17the technique, materials, and also if, when, and why
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11:17 - 11:22we should restore, or, rather, to intervene on
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11:22 - 11:25the environment surrounding the painting.
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11:25 - 11:28Well, our vision is to rediscover
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11:28 - 11:31the spirit of the Renaissance, create a new discipline
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11:31 - 11:35where engineering for cultural heritage is actually
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11:35 - 11:37a symbol of blending art and science together.
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11:37 - 11:40We definitely need a new breed of engineers
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11:40 - 11:42that will go out and do this kind of work and
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11:42 - 11:47rediscover for us these values, these cultural values
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11:47 - 11:49that we badly need, especially today.
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11:49 - 11:53And if you want to summarize in one just single word,
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11:53 - 11:56well, this is what we're trying to do.
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11:56 - 11:58We're trying to give a future to our past
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11:58 - 12:01in order to have a future.
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12:01 - 12:04As long as we live a life of curiosity and passion,
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12:04 - 12:08there is a bit of Leonardo in all of us. Thank you. (Applause)
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12:08 - 12:14(Applause)
- Title:
- The secret lives of paintings
- Speaker:
- Maurizio Seracini
- Description:
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Art history is far from set in stone. Engineer Maurizio Seracini spent 30 years searching for Leonardo da Vinci’s lost fresco “The Battle of Anghiari,” and in the process discovered that many paintings have layers of history hidden underneath. Should they be part of the viewing experience too?
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 12:34
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for The secret lives of paintings | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for The secret lives of paintings | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for The secret lives of paintings | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for The secret lives of paintings | ||
Thu-Huong Ha accepted English subtitles for The secret lives of paintings | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for The secret lives of paintings | ||
Joseph Geni edited English subtitles for The secret lives of paintings | ||
Joseph Geni added a translation |