ANR - Edition 2016, Thème Numérique et Société Founded by ANR
Version francaise

  e-ROMA
Expressive restoration of Gallo-Roman statues by virtual sculpture and animation

Scan Young Girl Musée Gallo-Romain de Fourvière

Project initiator :

- Raphaëlle Chaine, LIRIS, équipe GeoMod, Université Lyon 1

Involved laboratories and people :

•    LIRIS GeoMod : Raphaëlle Chaine, Julie Digne et Pierre-Marie Gandoin
•    IMAGINE LJK-INRIA : Stefanie Hahmann, Rémi Ronfard,
Damien Rohmer and Marie-Paule Cani
•    Musée Gallo-Romain : Hugues Savay-Guerraz (curator of the Museum), Maria-Pia Darblade-Audoin, Georges Cardoso
•    Université Paris-Sorbonne : Emmanuelle Rosso

Abstract :

e-ROMA grew out of the wish of the LIRIS GeoMod team in Lyon and IMAGINE (INRIA-LJK) in Grenoble to get closer on the theme of cultural heritage, in a project crossing their respective expertise in computer graphics, while promoting the archaeological wealth of the Rhône-Alpes region. Restoration and restitution of statues is particularly important for the Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon-Fourvière who is also a partner of the project. Indeed, the museum has a large collection of fragmentary stone reliefs, reflecting the high degree of Romanization that characterized Lugdunum. The museum now wants to take advantage of the digital revolution, to help in the reconstruction of a number of statues, and imagine the ornamentation of its architectural elements with statues that have now disappeared. The e-ROMA project also involves a historian of Paris-Sorbonne, who is eager to share the progress achieved over twenty-five years, in the knowledge of the art-works of the museum and more generally of the statuary of imperial times. Finally, an important point of the e-ROMA project will be the interactions with an art-restorer specialized in statues, in order to influence and validate the development of the virtual restoration model, without having to comply with all the constraints inherent in handling real remains.

A first axis of e-ROMA is to revisit the pipeline of 3D scanning and modeling of art-work, by focusing on accuracy, plausibility and interactivity. This pipeline should also be associated with real opportunities for restoration and virtual restitution, while respecting the style of the era, with traceability and control on the changes. First, the use of laser scans should be improved all over the tasks, without restricting it to scanning and 3D reconstruction. A second objective is to take full advantage of existing similar art-works, but also to bring additional knowledge about human anatomy, behavior of draped fabric, history of canons in the field of art, or gestures and carving tools used at this period. This activity of virtual restoration and restitution should finally be performed with simple gestures by restorers of statues, while remaining consistent with their profession.

The second axis focuses on the generation of new statues corresponding to new poses, new faces, and even other occupations or social positions, so as to complement and give a meaning to various architectural elements found in excavations. The concept of variety is also important, and it must be combined with the ease of a curator or a sculptor to obtain a new virtual model, while remaining within the framework of plausible assumptions. e-ROMA finally addresses the problem of generating expressive animated sequences of statues, particularly interesting in the context of promotion and restitutions for the general public.

Last news :

- 24th of november 2016 : Kick-off in Paris of the ANR projects accepted by committee 38, including e-ROMA.
- Internships possibilitites at GeoMod LIRIS and Imagine at LJK-INRIA.

- Candidate for a PhD on that subject within the GeoMod team at LIRIS and Imagine team at LJK-INRIA.
- 11 July 2017 : Kick-off of e-ROMA at Musée Gallo-Romain Lyon Fourvière.
- November 2017: Tong Fu launches her thesis at LIRIS on the virtual restoration of statues by part assembly
- December 2017: Pierre Casati starts his thesis at LJK-INRIA on the animation of bas-reliefs
- 5 july 2018 : Meeting in Lyon between the local team and Emmanuelle Rosso on the techniques of sculptures.
- 22 march 2019 : Meeting in Lyon
- July 8, 2020: Updates between LIRIS and LJK-INRIA partners (by videoconference),
- September 2020 : Extension of the e-Roma project following the Covid pandemic.
-10 March 2021 : Presentation of our results at the ANR colloque  Numérique et Patrimoine
-15 juin 2021 : Meeting between LIRIS and LJK-INRIA partners (projets pour l'année à venir, en visio)
- 6 juillet 2021 : PhD defense of Tong Fu

Bibliography :