Modeling the Present to Illustrate the Past: LiDAR, Photogrammetry, and Reality Capture in Florence, Italy

Through the employment of LiDAR equipment, photogrammetric programs, and a system called Reality Capture, the Digital Humanities team at Florence As It Was has created virtual models of two dozen architectural structures and scores of the artworks that originally decorated them. These navigable models may be inspected (gratis) with tools that aid students and specialists in the execution of pedagogical and scholarly projects.

This presentation will focus on two newly completed 3D models of Florentine monuments: the Dominican friary of S. Maria Novella and the granary/church of Orsanmichele. In addition to emphasizing the importance of accessing these spaces remotely, new reconstructions will suggest earlier iterations that have not been illustrated previously: In the case of the former, a model will be introduced that recreates the church that preceded it by the end of the eleventh century; and in the case of the latter, the ground floor of the guild church will be displayed that includes the panels that were attached to the piers flanking the miracle-working painting of the Madonna of Orsanmichele by Bernardo Daddi (removed for good in 1409). Ambient sounds will suggest the auditory experience of worshipping inside the loggia of Orsanmichele, while animated cutaways of S. Maria Novella will reveal the architectural complexity of the nave, side aisles, and rafters above in ways that cannot be replicated in any other way.