Communications of the ACM
Researchers Help Reconstruct Possible Michelangelo Bronzes
The statue may be one of the only surviving bronze works by Michelangelo.
Credit: Fitzwilliam Museum
Engineers and imagers from the University of Warwick's Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) and anatomists from Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick have been working with art historians from the University of Cambridge to try to understand how two mysterious Renaissance bronze sculptures were made and why they look the way they do by making accurate replicas of the originals. The latest technology — neutron imaging, XRF analysis, 360 degree laser scanning, 3-D printing, and real-time X-ray videography — has been involved in this Renaissance 'whodunnit.'
In February 2015 the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, made headlines when a team of academics proposed that two unsigned and undocumented bronzes were, in fact, cast from models made by Michelangelo.
While the original models were evidently incredibly beautiful and sophisticated, the thick-walled casts are less successful with much of the original detail lost. The research team is trying to establish why this is so, with the help of experimental replicas being made by Andrew Lacey, a contemporary sculptor and bronze-caster with a profound knowledge of archaeo-metallurgy.
He will be casting two reduced-scale replicas — the first using the traditional method of spruing, the second, using the more unorthodox method, which Lacey believes was used to create the bronzes in question — as well as a full-size version.
The replicas will be exact copies made with the assistance of high resolution scans of the original bronzes by researchers at WMG.
The University of Warwick has also provided scientific examination of the sculptures' anatomy provided by Professor Peter Abrahams, Clinical Anatomist at Warwick Medical School. "There are anatomical features on the bronzes that could only have been known by someone who had dissected the human body or who had attended dissections," Abrahams says.
"Dissections were very rare before 1543 and the publication of Vesalius' Fabrica, which was the first accurate and seminal anatomical text in the world," he says. "In the art world only Leonardo and Michelangelo had the anatomical knowledge, gained through the regular dissection of corpses, that would have been necessary to produce such anatomically accurate nude figures. There is no primary proof of other artists who dissected corpses on a regular basis in the first half of the 16th century. Some features of the anatomy on the two figures are not visible on observation alone and could only have been known through the practice of cutting open cadavers. I have also identified features of detailed anatomy of the two figures that are peculiar to the documented sculptures of Michelangelo and which could be characterized as signature details."
"I looked at the sartorius groove , the triangle of auscultation and the wrongly contracted two heads of gastrocnemius, as well as the details found in other known works of Michelangelo, i.e., Hallux with abducted elongated second toe, coiffured and "blow-dried" Tanner grade 5 male pubic hair position and distribution, rectus abdominis with anomalous extra tendinous intersection for an "8-pack" as seen also on some of his Pieta drawings and statues, a hooded umbilicus, as well as a stunning accuracy for over thirty muscles and bony points with a slight 'hyper-anatomized' style as is seen in others of his expressive male body drawings and sculptures."
Following on from this, a team led by Professor Mark Williams from WMG travelled to Cambridge and laser scanned one of the original sculptures to create an exact 3-D digital model. This scanner is so accurate it can resolve features to below 100 microns — the same equipment used for scanning highly precise engineering parts, and anatomical scans of the type used for crime investigation.
"It was fantastic to apply our technology to such an exciting project and help shed light on the origin of such beautiful statues," Williams says. "Usually we are working on something engineering-related, so to be able to take our expertise and transfer that to something totally different and so historically significant was a really interesting opportunity."
The high resolution laser scan was then used by Propshop, based at the Pinewood film studios, to create 3-D printouts at full-scale and reduced-scale.
Andrew will now take molds from both 3-D printouts, and use these to create his replicas, using alloys as close as possible to the originals, and in an old-fashioned furnace of the kind that Michelangelo and his contemporaries would have used.
To understand the mysterious and complex casting process even better, William Griffiths from the Metallurgy and Materials Department at Birmingham University will take real-time X-ray videos while the molten bronze is being poured into the molds, to record exactly how the liquid metal flows around the mold.
It is hoped that the replicas will allow a better understanding of how the two Renaissance masterpieces were made, in turn shedding more light on bronze-making in the early 16th century.
The project has been coordinated by Victoria Avery, Keeper of Applied Arts at the Fitzwilliam Museum.
The full research team brought together art historians from the University of Cambridge, conservation scientists at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, an anatomist from the University of Warwick, and engineers and imagers from the University of Warwick's WMG, and metallurgists from Birmingham University.
The bronzes are currently on loan to the Fitzwilliam Museum from a private collection.
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