Paintings pixel by pixel

In the Notre-Dame-des-Fontaines chapel in the area of Nice, a team of interdisciplinary researchers is studying frescoes dating from the 15th century to understand how they deteriorate and thus better restore them.
As part of the Fiat Lux program, this project is to collect and feed a large amount of images and information into a digital platform. Using different imaging techniques, these researchers will reconstruct works in 3D, probe their relief, make out successive repaints or even detect the chemical elements of pictorial matter. The film also follows the restoration of the Vénasque triptych and the Trinity altarpiece in the CICRP laboratories and the benefits from using various image processing and chemical analysis tools. With these digital duplicates, art historians, curators, restorers and scientists will be able to follow the evolution of these works over time to better preserve them.