Elisabetta Povoledo writes for The New York Times on saturday, about the digitization of Veronese’s The Wedding at Cana being installed on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore a few weeks ago. The article goes into great depth about the painstaking work of how this masterpiece was scanned, scrutinized, and eventually printed, and touched up to become very close to the real thing or at least a photo of the real thing – or something that resembles the original as it now exists.
The group Factum Arte has digitally recreated, in what I understand is in amazing detail and has hung it in the same place it was removed from almost 210 years ago.
Here’s a bit of the backstory
Napoleon’s forces removed the painting from the refectory of the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore as war booty – cutting the painting into pieces and reassembling it back home. It currently hangs at the Louvre (Paris) directly across from the Mona Lisa and is claimed to be viewed by 9 million visitors a year by the French authorities. (sidebar: do you remember any of the other paintings in that room? – I don’t)
Venice has always wanted this painting back – they still occasionally have mock trials of Napoleon and every few years someone wants to sue the Louvre or the French Government for it’s return. That return is not going to happen since it was resolved (diplomatically) in 1815.
Back to the story
So what we have is a very serious digital reproduction sitting in place of what is now somewhere else. Do understand that I believe that this digital copy – which took 18 months to do – is probably one hell of an object. However it is not an art object. It carries no authenticity as art. The thing is, I believe in art, the real thing – not copies, duplicates or substitutions. I want to experience, the presence of something, it may be ancient or temporary – but I want to experience that thing. I want to see the same paint, rock or whatever the artist did when he or she made it. This is as close to religion as I have, and I care for it deeply. This “new” The Wedding at Cana bothers me, I feel like it’s starting a bit of a trend where this will become an acceptable way to view art in the future. This is the crux of why I’m even bothering to write about this.
A couple of years ago I wrote about a Caravaggio exhibit that exhibited all of his paintings in one place as digital reproductions. People would say “It’s just as good” or some such thing – but the truth is the show had the stink of not being real – and the public agreed – the show quietly went away.
I will give credit to Factum Arte who has insisted that the digital work is “not a clone but a deep and detailed study”. I just hope that the public understands this when they see a artwork that looks like the real thing in the place where it was always meant to be, and is now for lack of a better word, home.
A Footnote Richard Hell, speaking about his first band, Television, stated; “All we did was cut our hair and played in street clothes, and people, so hungry for the real thing, worshipped us like gods”.