A Digital Study of the Morphological and Stability Issues of a Delicate Wax-based Artwork

Abstract

ABSTRACT Xenophanes is a figurine made of a waxy mixture and grey plasticine, created by Yannis Pappas at the end of the twentieth century. During its short period of existence, the figurine presented severe plastic deformation, structural, and stability issues, with detached or missing elements. The artwork’s earlier preserved states are documented by an archival photograph of 1994 and two casts dated to 2005. The physical treatment of its deformation is an irreversible intervention that may put the artwork in additional danger. The conservation of complex contemporary artworks comprises a challenging field of work, as the coexistence and aging of different and often pliable materials lead to multiple deformations. Their conservation treatments could be kept to a minimum for the preservation and understanding of the artworks, with the support of three-dimensional (3D) documentation and digital restoration. A digital restoration that simulates the physical treatment of an artwork aims to provide information that could assist with decisions made for its physical care by minimizing the risks. This paper examines the digital restoration of the small figurine Xenophanes following the steps of increased intervention of a probable physical treatment and how each step of this process may affect its stability. 3D documentation of the current condition of the artwork and its two casts was made utilizing optical laser scanning and structure from motion photogrammetry. The resulting 3D models facilitated the digital restoration of the artwork to its earlier states. The comparison and analysis of the 3D models and the digital restoration process provided information that could assist its physical treatment. The digital restoration of the complex plastic deformation of an artwork is a case that, to our knowledge, has not been addressed so far. The complexity of the progress, the ethical dilemmas that arise during the artwork’s restoration, and the reflection on the restoration of a cultural artifact only in the digital environment encourage the rethinking of conservation.