To say that he looked grim, cloistered in his oratory in Campôme (Pyrénées-Orientales) for hundreds of years, is not offending him.
This wooden bust of Saint-Estève (Saint-Étienne in French) is split on all sides and the paintings with which it was decorated have almost disappeared.
"It's a polychrome wood sculpture dating from the 16th or 17th century," explains Marc Vilar, history teacher at the Lycée Charles Renouvier in Prades, about fifty kilometers from Perpignan.
“She was probably taller, but only a bust remains today.
It was exposed to all bad weather but also, given its seniority, to a possible theft.
To preserve it, it was then decided to make a copy.
It is on this project that two classes from the Prades high school worked together: the art history class from Marc Vilar's general high school and a “Definition of industrial products” class from the vocational high school.
"We went on site with the students and were able to carry out a three-dimensional scan of the statue", specifies Patrice February, professor of mechanical construction who supervised the work.
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Where the adventure got complicated was when it was necessary to go from image to reconstruction using the 3D printer with which the school is equipped.
“One of the students in the class, Léo Roumiguière, was welcomed at the town hall of Campôme as an internship for four weeks.
There, he worked on preparing the files needed for 3D printing, ”continues Patrice February.
By connecting a host of points, by plugging virtual holes so that the machine can do its work.
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It took three days for the said machine to print the whole thing in mid-September.
Once the copy is finished, "it will be placed in the oratory in place of the original which, once restored, will be lodged in another place, away from greed", as Marc Vilar specifies.
“In the oratory, the new bust of Saint-Estève will be accompanied by an explanation indicating where it will be possible to see the original.
»For a few more centuries in this small village of a hundred inhabitants on the road to the Col de Jau.