Conserving the past for the hands of the future

All over the world there are objects and places so precious that most of us will only ever be able to look at them from afar. Ancient artifacts, fragile works of art and relics, safely stored away in darkened, climate-controlled vaults or behind thick protective glass – touched only by trained professionals.

And, of course, preserving these extraordinary pieces of our culture is vital. They allow us to not only reach back across time to learn from the civilisations that created them, but to trace their path and understand everything that followed. Japan, for instance, is home to countless delicate masterpieces, created hundreds of years ago from some of the most vulnerable materials imaginable – paper, silk, gold leaf. In 2007, we founded the Tsuzuri Project, alongside the Kyoto Culture Association, to use state-of-the-art Canon technologies and create ultra-high-definition, full-scale facsimiles of these treasures, so the originals can remain safely conserved. 

Dozens of important works of art have passed through the project’s hands, from centuries old silk scrolls to the most delicate paper screens, many housed in the world’s most prestigious museums. In particular, two folding paper screens, featuring delicate clouds of gold leaf, stand out. All of 16th century life plays out before you in ‘Scenes in and around Kyoto’ – an astonishing 2,485 figures, from nobility to common people and everything in between. So, creating a perfect copy of such an exceptional accomplishment required equally exceptional technology.

A specially mounted Canon DSLR took images of the artwork, which were painstakingly ‘stitched’ together and colour corrected. Then, using an imagePROGRAF large-format printer, the subtle texture and ancient colours were reproduced on ‘washi’, a Japanese handmade paper, adapted by our Research & Development experts to be suitable for printing. Finally, one of Japan’s most respected master craftsmen, Hiroto Rakusho, applied the distinctive sweeps of gold leaf.

But Japan is not alone in using Canon technology this way. In Madrid, Factum Arte has been at the forefront of technology in art and conservation for 25 years, blurring the line between digital and physical. “No museum was recording the surface of objects,” explains founder Adam Lowe. “But we [Adam and co-founder, Manuel Franquelo] felt it a critical factor.” They saw that all too often artworks were photographed – even x-rayed – capturing the works as an image. But the intricate world of their surfaces were being neglected, despite them holding so much critical information.

And while most of the artifacts replicated through the Tsuzuri Project are two dimensional and made of organic materials, like paper, Factum works with every conceivable kind of project – from huge sculptures and world-famous oil paintings to more unusual challenges, such as structures, tombs, even entire rooms. Nothing is off the table when it comes to capturing every complex and intricate detail, millimetre by millimetre. However, “everything we do is 100% non-contact,” Adam stresses, telling the story of their first big project – recreating the tomb of Seti I in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings to allow for closer study and analysis. “Many scanners at the time required markers but our system captured depth maps instead”.

This was to become the hallmark of Factum Arte and their not-for-profit Factum Foundation – customising hardware, developing their own software and building a team that comprised not only engineers of every flavour, but artists, sculptors, product designers, conservators, photographers, textile specialists – even architects and specialist welders. As well as reaching out to technology partners, like Canon, to help them achieve even more.

“When I met Clemens [Weijkamp, elevated printing technologist at Canon Production Printing], it was like a breath of fresh air,” smiles Adam. “He truly understood us and we’ve worked very closely ever since”. Factum now uses Canon technology across their projects in different, sometimes surprising, ways. Canon cameras are on hand for the digital recording aspect of almost all their work, but they also own two Arizona printers, which can print physical 3D textures. However, theirs has been modified to print up to a depth of 20mm. “We use it to print volume,” he explains. “There are others making facsimiles of paintings but put their results beside what we're doing and you will understand the difference between a copy and a facsimile. Ours have the qualities of a painting not of a print”.

When the Antikenmuseum in Basel asked Factum to produce an exhibition about the tomb of Seti I, the textured surface of the sarcophagus was printed on the Arizona. These were then mapped onto its alabaster – which wildly understates the complexity of the task. Processing the files required various algorithms to separate the surface from the form so that they could be joined together to make a perfect facsimile.

And this was only the beginning. Factum work – both digital and physical – has been applied to some of the world’s most recognisable cultural treasures. Their facsimiles of the Raphael Cartoons, for example (paintings commissioned by the Pope in 1515 to create hanging tapestries for the lower walls of the Sistine Chapel), while part of a wider conservation effort at the V&A, were also featured side-by-side with the originals in exhibitions at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome and the National Gallery in London.

And they’ve used their Arizona printers to incredible effect on many similar projects, creating hyper-realistic replicas of Fra Angelico at the Prado, Ceramic tile reproductions for the Spanish Gallery at Bishop Auckland, Rembrandt’s Portrait of an Elderly Man and Caravaggio’s The Burial of St. Lucy among countless others.

Adam admits that their process is “long-winded and complicated, but the Arizona plays a critical part in it – it’s a great tool and has extraordinary potential”. When technology meets tradition in this way, as it does to such great effect through both the Tsuzuri Project and Factum Arte, it opens a world of new conservation opportunities that were once unimaginable, while retaining the soul of the original works. And, above all, it can put protected cultural heritage, quite literally, in everyone’s hands.

Learn more about the creative potential of print and our Arizona and imagePROGRAF printers.