CONSERVATION AND MAINTENANCE CONCEPTS OF SOONG CHING LING’S DOLOMITE MARBLE STATUE IN SHANGHAI AND SUPPORTING SURVEY METHODS

The dolomite marble statue of Madam Soong Ching Ling, Honorary Chairlady of the People’s Republic of China, is situated in the memorial square of Soong Ching Ling’s Mausoleum in Shanghai, China. The statue is composed of 4 pieces of white marble (Hanbaiyu) from Fangshan, Beijing. The statue, along with the mausoleum, has been listed as a national monument since 1982, yet severe deterioration occurred in recent years. In May 2018, a diagnostic investigation of the statue was carried out. Aided by advanced photogrammetry methods such as 3D modelling, macro photography and infrared thermography, all micro cracks were identified and labelled. Other advanced in-situ and laboratory surveys such as in-situ microscope, ultrasonic CT inspection, chalking evaluation test and mineralogical investigation were applied to further evaluate the condition. Based on analysis of all test results, conservation and maintenance concepts including a monitoring program specifically to control cracking has been developed. This concept was approved by the authorities and implemented in May 2019. After two years’ exposure, an evaluation of previous conservation and a new maintenance work were recently completed in April 2021. A long-term monitoring strategy as well as maintenance methods will be worked out based on the evaluation of all implemented efforts and climatic data.

3D Thermal Imaging System with Decoupled Acquisition for Industrial and Cultural Heritage Applications

Three-dimensional thermography is a recent technique—with various fields of application—that consists of combining thermography with 3D spatial data in order to obtain 3D thermograms, high information objects that allow one to overcome some limitations of 2D thermograms, to enhance the thermal monitoring and the detection of abnormalities. In this paper we present an integration methodology that can be applied to merge data acquired from a generic thermal camera and a generic laser scanner, and has the peculiarity of keeping the two devices completely decoupled and independent, so that thermal and geometrical data can be acquired at different times and no rigid link is needed between the two devices. In this way, the stand-alone capability of each device is not affected, and the data fusion is applied only when necessary. In the second part, the real effectiveness of our approach is tested on a 3D-printed object properly designed. Furthermore, one example of an application of our methodology in the cultural heritage field is presented, with an eye to preservation and restoration: the integration is applied to a marble statue called Madonna with the Child, a fine work of the Florentine sculptor Agostino di Duccio (1418–1481). The results suggest that the method can be successfully applicable to a large set of scenarios. However, additional tests are needed to improve the robustness.

Funde in Schichten

A key passage in Adalbert Stifter’s Der Nachsommer (Indian Summer) tells of the discovery of an antique marble statue in Cumae, Italy. The account can be read as an archeological scene in which a pretext, Prosper Mérimée’s La Vénus d’Ille, is overwritten and inverted. Both texts were written by authors who were officially nominated inspectors of historical monuments; both reflect on archeological practices related to national heritage. While Mérimée’s novella satirizes a destructive practice of exposure, Stifter promotes a gentle form of excavation in order to restore an intact antiquity. The passage refers to a stratigraphic concept discussed in contemporary archeology which also characterizes the working method of the author himself: a writing in ‘layers’ of pretexts and subtexts that at the same time removes and stacks different levels of structure and meaning.

Mixed-Media Domestic Ensembles in Roman Sicily: The House of Leda at Soluntum

Built in the second to early-first century BCE, the House of Leda at Soluntum, a city on the northwest coast of Sicily, was renovated in the first century CE. The most prominent change to the residence was the inclusion of figural Fourth-Style wall paintings in its dining room. The fresco ensemble reveals a particular interest in the painted depiction of stone, such as an image of Leda and the swan as a marble statue and trompe l’oeil blocks of colored marble and granite from around the Mediterranean. The house renovation was not wholesale since the owner also chose to preserve a number of decorative elements from the earlier, Hellenistic-era phase of the residence, including two sculptures, cut-limestone pavements, and an intricate mosaic of an astronomical instrument. In this article I argue that the tension created between the medium of paint, and its use to mimic marble and stone, resulted in a unified, mixed-media domestic ensemble. The viewer was encouraged to compare and contrast the faux marble and stone in the dining room’s Fourth-Style frescoes with the Hellenistic-era marble and stone artworks throughout the rest of the house. This juxtaposition of older and newer decorative elements reveals that the owner of the House of Leda positioned himself as both a member of the Roman provincial elite as well as a local benefactor and custodian of Sicily’s rich Hellenistic culture.