Ritratto di Cosimo I de’Medici di Clemente e Baccio Bandinelli: ragioni e modi di una copia

Today, engaging with the replication of works of art involves new paradigms that, although reminiscent of the concepts expressed by Benjamin in his “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” are still revisited in light of a different perceptual register compared to the past. Salvatore Settis, curator of two important exhibitions on the subject, highlights how the loss of aura and ritual inherent in the original is counterbalanced by “technological exuberance,” with its innovative tools that alter traditional approaches to the concepts of ownership, sharing, valorization, and communication of artistic artifacts. This is particularly true when focusing on the extraordinary process of replication through digital “molding” from the original and re-production using additive or subtractive techniques, not to mention the new possibilities offered by virtual explorations through 3D viewers, datagloves, and haptic systems. It is a process that must be contended with to produce “copies” that are expressions of our time, using techniques borrowed from the industrial sector but rooted in the fundamental principles of ancient artisanal processes.