EXCEL Scholars Reconstruct Italian Renaissance Altarpieces for Renowned Art Historian’s Book

Using a method spearheaded at Lafayette, students working with Lew Minter, director of the media lab at the Williams Visual Arts Building, are using digital reconstruction to reveal the original glory of centuries-old paintings that have been damaged or dismantled and sold to museums and private buyers around the globe. Several digitally reconstructed works of art, including "The San Marco Altarpiece" by Fra Angelico, "The Maestà Altarpiece" by Duccio di Buoninsegna, and Castagno's "Famous Men and Illustrious Women Cycle," will appear in the sixth edition of David G. Wilkins' The History of Italian Renaissance Art (Prentice Hall) to be published in April 2006.

"The possibility of using digitized reconstructions to provide some sense of the original appearance of an important and complex work of art has tantalized me for several years, and the work of Lew Minter and his students at Lafayette College has, at last, fulfilled the promise that I thought this technology might offer to teachers, students, and the interested reader," says Wilkins, adding, "....I think our view of a number of Renaissance masterworks can be transformed."

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Minter reviews digital reconstruction with Kelly Murray '06. Under Minter's guidance, Emily Gillespie '07 works on Fra Angelico's "San Marco Altarpiece". Minter and Gillespie discuss details of the "San Marco Altarpiece".

"Famous Men and Illustrious Women Cycle" painted by Castagno around 1450 in Villa Carducci at Soffiano, as it appears today (left) and digitally reconstructed (right.) The paintings of the figures on the right wall were removed in 1847 and placed on canvas. They are now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Some of the original underpainting can be seen where they were removed. An original figure remains on the back wall, left, but since there is no way to determine what was to the right of that figure, it was not digitally reconstructed.

"The San Marco Altarpiece" by Fra Angelico, digitally reconstructed in color. "The Maestà Altarpiece" by Duccio di Buoninsegna, front and back, digitally reconstructed in color.