I knew the Pisanello’s fresco, San Giorgio che parte per liberare la donzella dal drago because of its fame. I also knew it was considered an absolute masterpiece as well as the highest expression of international Gothic in Verona but to be honest, I had never understood why. The fresco is located in the church of Saint Anastasia, in Verona, above the Cappella Pellegrini at a height of approximately 45 feet. Additionally, the fresco has deteriorated considerably and natural light does it absolutely no justice. I had even looked for documentation in books but the photographs showed me a work that did not excite me in the slightest.

Luca Steffenoni, Michael Lake and the Associazione Chiese Vive

I have been collaborating for some times with Luca Steffenoni  who deals with advanced multimedia communication projects. It is through him that I met the architect Michael Lake, who is in charged of the image of the Chiese Vive di Verona association.  I showed him some photographs of Primaticcio’s frescoes that I had taken in Chateau Chaalis, near Paris on behalf of FMR. Seen on my monitor, at full resolution, they were fascinating, really spectacular. Hence the question, why don't we manage to let the visitors of Saint Anastasia see Pisanello’s fresco with the same quality? Luca Steffenoni took charge immediately of the project, trying to figure out what software could allow for an interactive fruition of the work.

So this new adventure began, one that would require us to overcome enormous obstacles. The first problem was the position of the fresco. We used a special telescopic tripod that, at the maximum extension, it reached 45 feet. A Hasselblad digital camera, supported by a Manfrotto radio-controlled micrometric head prototype, was controlled from a laptop on the ground, where the pictures could be viewed immediately . The dimensions of the work were 22x11 feet. The project required 24 multishot pictures at 22Mp that were leter assembled in a maxi file. At this point, however, we encountered another obstacle: the lighting system that we were planning to use, Elinchrom flashes, turned out to not be suitable for the logistics of the shots and the dimensions of the subject and forced us to change out plans.

An exciting preview

We then tried to work using natural light, this time with exceptional results. The first image to appear on the laptop screen, showed in blazing detail a detail of the Princess, something that gave me goose bumps. Many parts of the painting are in bass relief; the very particular three-dimensional technique used by the Pisanello made the dress look like real brocade fabric and the hair decorations as if alive. A couple of shots later, I finally understood why this masterpiece had acquired such a reputation. After a few shots, however, we had to abandon this second option too. The 24 shots required demanded hours of shooting and the natural light, suitable only at a very specific time of the day, was unacceptable otherwise. It was a disaster.

Hasselblad Microstep at a height of 45 feet

AI had, however, noticed an important detailed: if at a specific hour, the light was perfect on the right hand side but the center and left were in the shadow, after approximately half an hour, it was perfect at the centre and so on. At that point I realized that we had to try a different approach, to shoot in microstep mode, at 16 shots in order to obtain 88Mp shots. This would have allowed us to cover the whole surface with only five shots. Initially this seemed unattainable because of the absolute stability required by this shooting mode, where the slightest hint of micro vibration would have produced an unusable pixilated product. Luck seemed to be on our side and the following day, with a lot of planning and carefully placed ropes, we managed to obtain clear images. Shooting gradually as the natural light “rotated”, every resulted optimally lit. Once all the images were combined, even including some less satisfying parts, we were all excited.

Now finally, thanks to an innovative software that allows interactivity on an Apple monitor at 30 inches, the princess, the horses, the fantastic city and all the incredible characters of the fresco can be admired in all their splendor by the visitors to Saint Anastasia.

• http://steffenoni.podbean.com/
• http://www.chieseverona.it/