Visitors to Rome's Capitoline Museumscan as of Tuesday admire a life-size reconstruction of the Colossus of Constantine based on the few known remaining pieces from the original statue dating to the fourth century AD.
The reconstruction of the statue of the great Roman emperor(306-337 AD), measuring 13 m in height, stands in the gardens of Villa Caffarilli on the Capitoline hill and uses innovative techniques resulting from a collaboration between the FactumFoundation for Digital Technology in Preservation, FondazionePrada and the Rome cultural and archaeological superintendent'soffice led by Claudio Parisi Presicce.
The colossal statue, discovered at the Basilica of Maxentius near the Colosseum in the 15th century, is considered one of the most significant examples of late ancient Roman sculpture.
Today only a few monumental marble fragments - the head, right arm, right wrist, right hand, right knee, right shin, right foot, left foot - remain and are housed in the courtyard of Palazzo dei Conservatori at the Capitoline Museums.
In March 2022 a team from the Factum Foundation spent three days scanning these fragments using photogrammetry.
Each fragment was then modeled in 3D and positioned on the digital body of the statue created using other similar cult statues from the imperial age, including the colossal first-century AD statue of Jupiter in the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg and the large plaster copy of the statue of Emperor Claudius, portrayed as Jupiter, in the Ara Pacis Museum in Rome.
Thereafter, the material reconstruction of the Colossus was carried out using a mixture of resin and polyurethane, marblepowder, gold leaf and plaster to render the marble and bronze surfaces, with an easily assembled and removable internal aluminum support.
The final result is on display to visitors until December 31,2025.
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