L'approvazione della Regola Francescana: esperienza virtuale tra i personaggi dell'opera di Giotto

The installation "Giotto in 3D: virtual experience among the character of franciscan tales", realized under the coordination of CNR, is dedicated to the virtual exploration and multisensorial immersion inside the scene "The Rule Confirmation", painted by Giotto at the end of the 13th century in the Upper Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. It has been presented in Assisi this year, in occasion of the exhibition "Giotto's colors" (www.icoloridigiotto.it) promoted by the Municipality of Assisi in collaboration with the Franciscan Fathers.?Starting from Giotto's use of perspective and from a very accurate study of the space, a 3D model was realized, matching as nearly as possible the original. Giotto's paiting was acquired at very high definition and used for the texturing of the 3D models. A wondering effetc has been obtained, as it is possible to recognize the artist's strokes and style on the 3D volumes.The visitor can move and explore in real time within this virtual environment, in order to live an experience of both sensorial, emotional immersion and conceptual comprehension of Giotto's style. The 3D representation is located in a dark space and projected on a surface 4x5 meters. Visitors interact within the virtual space and mix with the characters without mouse, joystick, etc. but just using body movements, in a simple and natural way.The scene itself is brought to life: the characters are animated and represented while performing the action described in the scene. ?Moreover it is possible also to the analyses of Giotto's space and perspective, through a direct comparison between the 2D and 3D representations. Description: The primary objective of the virtual application "Giotto in 3D: virtual experience among the character of franciscan tales", realized under the coordination of CNR, is to involve the observer in the scene "The Rule Confirmation" painted by Giotto in the Upper Basilica of Assisi at the end of the XIII century , and to enable the visitor to feel and understand the message that Giotto was communicating. Starting from a very accurate analysis of the perspective, the view points, the proportion and the position of the elements painted in the scene, a complete three-dimensional model has been realized, matching as nearly as possible the original. Giotto's image was acquired at very high resolution and then it was subdivided In order to be used for the texturing of the 3D models. A wondering effect has been obtained, as it is possible to recognize the artist's strokes and style on the volumes. The three-dimensional reconstruction of the scene "the Rule Confirmation" offers a unique occasion to penetrate in the history of painting and to appreciate one of its fundamental step: the transition from the medioeval, ancient, approach in representation to the modern approach, born during the Renaissance. Giotto's image, in which the perspective rendering of the space appears still very empirical, is compared with its three-dimensional translation. What we can see in the 3D representation is the same scene painted by Giotto as if it would have painted by Piero della Francesca, more than a century later, following the new perspective rules, just theorized. The perspective representation purses "the illusion of reality ", a visual effect that makes a scene drawn on a bidmensional plane appearing as it would be three-dimensional. Given a point of view, the scene is constructed in relation with it, according to precise rules of mathematics, optics and geometrical projection. The comparison between the two representations allows to identify how and where Giotto's image diverges from the 3D one, following correct perspective rules. Giotto constructs the third dimension combining different perspectives, se