Modellare la materia per conservare la memoria : il caso del grande plastico di Pompei

The 19th-century plastic model of Pompeii at the rise of photography: a “double” 3D archive? The magnificent cork plastic model of Pompeii (1861-1929 ca.) represents a valuable document for the archaeological research and an exceptional testimony of a fading methodology. The Pompeian maquette, summarizing multiple data and various documentary supports, constitutes a tridimensional physical archive, a holistic snapshot of the site close to its excavation: the urban topography, the residential and public architecture, the entire heritage of frescoes and mosaics. Emblematically it places itself in a period of transition: while the modellers still worked with cork, plaster and brushes, the earliest photographers were testing at Pompeii the new methodologies of documentation. The spread of the photographic sensibility, the interest for contexts and their open and objective reproduction conditioned deeply the conception of the great plastic model. The whole plastic model of Pompeii has been acquired and rendered through digital photography, taking into account each detail: from the tridimensional physical archive to a digital 3D model. At the crossroad between phelloplastics, archive photography and new methodologies, the digital 3D survey constitutes a peculiar archive of images and dataset in their contextual environment and related to their analogue cork model. Considering some Pompeian domus, their decorations (frescoes, floorings) and building details, it is possible to make comparisons between their current status and the documentary evidence given by the cork model and its digital 3D reproduction.