3DVisA Resources

3DVisA Index of 3D Projects. Coins, Medals, Gems and Sphragistic Studies

THE PONIATOWSKI GEMS - PLEASE NOTE: THIS PAGE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Keywords: engraved gems, 3D structured light, 3D model.

Classical engraved gems are amongst the most collectable objects. The collection assembled by the Medicis in Florence in the fifteenth century was amongst the most renowned. Many patrons since have shown an avid interest in this art and were prepared to pay huge sums for classical gems. This considerable demand resulted in extensive copying, imitating and faking of antient gems already in the Renaissance and in later periods. Both genuine ancient gems and later forgeries are held in museums. The treasures housed by the British Museum include gems from the collection of Prince Stanislaw Poniatowski (1754-1833), whose collection of 1,140 gems was sold for £12,000 at Christie's in London in 1839. A contemporary reviewer commented on the disquiteing number of signatures of ancient engravers: 'The collection... is full of works by Pyrgoteles, Polyclites, Apollonides, Dioscurides, in greater numbers than there were in antiquity itself.' (Jones, 1999, p. 150). Distinguishing a genuine ancient from later gem is chiefly grounded on stylistic analysis and comparison, and tends to be unreliable. This is why a more reliable technique for documentating and comparing gems has been saught by experts who find the use of conventional photography for this purpose limited.

Experts in Micromechanics and Photonics from the Politechnika Warszawska (University of Technology) of Warsaw, Poland, have teamed with the Staatliche Museen in Berlin and the Conservation Department at the Warsaw Wilanow Palace, and applied 3D structured light scanning technology to record and visualise gems in the Berlin collection of Prince Stanislaw Poniatowski.

The aim of the project was to.................

Fig. 1. A plaster impression of ......(DIMENSIONS), Antikensamlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, and its 3D model. © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and Politechnika Warszawska. Reproduced with kind permission.

METHOD/TECHNOLOGY

3DMADMAC stands for 3D Measurement with Algorithms of Directional Merging and Conversion. ........It is non-invasive .... accurracy level....

Fig. 2. Capturing 3D data (3D cloud) from the plaster impression....., Antikensamlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and Politechnika Warszawska. Reproduced with kind permission.

This technology is different from 3D laser scanning ........

Fig. 3. 3D computer record of the plaster impression and a detail of the textured polygon mesh. © Antikensamlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and Politechnika Warszawska. Reproduced with kind permission.

Project dates: Ongoing from....

Resource status: The 3D records are stored at ... and used by .....

Contributors: Robert Sitnik, Politechnika Warszawska; Gertrud Platz, Antikensamlung, Staatliche Museen, Berlin; Eryk Bunsch and Elzbieta Modzelewska, Muzeum w Wilanowie, Warsaw, Poland.

Sources and further details:

OGX Optographx, the website of the Institute of Micromechanics and Photonics, Technical University of Warsaw, Poland.

3DMADMAC pages.

R. Sitnik, M. Kujawinska, "From cloud of point co-ordinates to 3D virtual environment: the data conversion system", Opt. Eng. v. 41(2),416-427, 2002.

R. Sitnik, M. Kujawinska "Creating true 3D-shape representation: merging methodologies " Proc. SPIE,v. 4661,92-100, 2002.

R. Sitnik, M. Kujawinska, "From reality to virtual reality: 3D object imaging techniques and algorithms", Proc. SPIE, v. 5146, 54-61, 2003.

M. Kujawinska, R. Sitnik, M. Pawlowski, P. Garbat, M. Wegiel, "3D object data acquisition and processing for virtual reality applications", OPTO-ELECTONICS REVIEW 11(3), 181-191, 2003.

M. Kujawinska, R. Sitnik, "Measurement and data processing uncertainty issues in optical, full-field measurement techniques", Proc. SPIE, v. 5191, 103-112, 2003.

R. Sitnik, "Phase scaling using characteristic polynomials", Proc. SPIE, v. 5532, 211-217, 2004.

R. Sitnik, W. Zaluski, M. Kowalski, P. Bolewicki, "Measurements for virtual museum:the Kórnik Castle ", Proc. 5th Int. Conf. Mechatronice 2004, 299-302, 2004.

R. Sitnik, A fully automatic 3D shape measurement system with data export for enineering and multimedia systems......

This record is based on the material kindly provided by Robert Sitnik, Eryk Bunsch and Ewa Modzelewska. It was compiled by Anna Bentkowska-Kafel. Last updated: 21 November 2007. 3DVisA gratefully acknowledges the help of Robert Sitnik and Eryk Bunsch with preparation of this record.

© Staatliche Museen, Berlin; Politechnika Warszawska; Muzeum Palac w Wilanowie, Warsaw and 3DVisA, 2007.