Exploring the Effects of Support Restoration on Pictorial Layers Through Multi-Resolution 3D Survey

Three-dimensional (3D) reproduction of artworks has advanced significantly, offering valuable insights for conservation by documenting the objects’ conservative state at both macroscopic and microscopic scales. This paper presents the 3D survey of an earthquake-damaged panel painting, whose wooden support suffered severe deformation during a seismic event, posing unique restoration challenges. Our work focuses on quantifying how shape variations in the support—induced during restoration—affect the surface mor-phology of the pictorial layers. To this end, we conducted measurements before and after support consolidation using two complementary 3D techniques: structured-light projec-tion to generate 3D models of the painting, tracking global shape changes in the panel, and laser-scanning microprofilometry to produce high-resolution models of localized ar-eas, capturing surface morphology, superficial cracks, and pictorial detachments. By pro-cessing and cross-comparing 3D point cloud data from both techniques, we quantified shape variations and evaluated their impact on the pictorial layers. This approach demon-strates the utility of multi-scale 3D documentation in guiding complex restoration inter-ventions.