Six centuries ago the city of Florence was a happening place according to art historian George Bent.
“In 1492, when Columbus kind of bumps into the new world, Florence is one of the leading cultural centers and economic centers in Europe, in the evolution of Renaissance art and architecture.”
Michelangelo, Botticelli, da Vinci and other giants of the renaissance began their careers there, and their works fill the museums of modern Florence. But those paintings, murals and sculptures were originally on display all over the city, so Bent – now a professor at Washington & Lee University -- wants people to see them as they would have appeared in the year 1500.
“That is what really got us started on this project to try to map the original locations of art works, so that any user could go to the map and see, ‘Oh, this is where the David was supposed to be.’”
Ironically, the project was also inspired by a 21st century experience. Senior Technologist David Pfaff says Bent was playing a video game called Assassin’s Creed with his kids.
“And saw depictions of Florentine buildings in a really nice quality and thought, ‘We should be able to do that too,’” Pfaff says.
So he and Bent started gathering the raw materials needed for a virtual recreation.
“We sent some students right away to Florence to use photographs to build three-dimensional models," Pfaff recalls. "From that we expanded into what we use a lot now -- a technique called LiDAR which is laser scanners.”
“We’ve been scanning buildings in Florence since the winter of 2018," Bent adds. "I go every year. A rough estimate would be maybe 20 months of pure scanning in the last seven years.”
It can be hard, physical work. You have to be able to lug a 25-pound scanner around for six hours a day.
But Bent says it’s worth the effort, allowing visitors to fly above the city, to wander its streets, visit its palaces churches and art. It turns out Florence was an especially good place to study, because the locals kept such meticulous records.
“Florentines became deeply interested in documenting themselves in the 14th century, because they were making so much money. With the textile industry booming and the florin becoming an international currency, Florentines had to keep track of everything, and that means that right now the Florentine archives are just bursting at the seams with information.”
Some officials welcomed this hi-tech project, but others are reluctant. Bent and his colleagues needed approval from four different organizations over two years to scan a single historic church.
“Things got a little bit easier after the fire at Notre Dame of 2019 when I think proprietors realized that having an absolutely accurate model of their space could be to their benefit,” he explains.
In addition to the visual experience of Florence circa 1500, the website contains music, literary references and modern descriptions in English, Italian and German.
“We’re writing our own essays and embedding them into the model, so you get annotations of what you’re looking at. It’s supposed to be a holistic, one-stop shopping place to learn about the period.”
Already, the site is attracting about 8,000 visitors a month, and Bent says this approach could revolutionize the way students study art history. You can explore Florence As It Was here:
