Architectura Picta and Virtual Reality. Interactive Explorations of Painting Works

The research involved the careful analysis of Masaccio's Trinità fresco in Santa Maria Novella in Florence, painted between 1425 and 1427. This is a work of great interest, not least as a result of the words reserved by Giorgio Vasari in his commentary on the Vite [1]. Starting from some analyses conducted previously by Filippo Camerota, the 3D digital model was made, interpolating the geometries of the plan with those related to the longitudinal section, and verifying the correspondences with the main elevation. The painted perspective was then compared with the projection of the numerical model from the same viewpoint, finding a remarkable correspondence, except for some insignificant details. The next phase of the work involved exporting the contents to a virtual reality system so that it was possible to simulate verisimilarly passing through the pictorial veil and entering the painted scene, thanks to advanced stereoscopic visualization and navigation with haptic devices, to allow better investigation of the morphological contents, such as capitals, pilasters and decorative apparatus. Moving the virtual user in plane and space allowed to evaluate better the proportions of the work in relation to those of a hypothetical human figure, which may be present in the scene, even if only virtually.