Methodologies of digital 3D acquisition and representation of mosaics.

Despite the recent improvements and widespread of digital technologies and their applications in the field of Cultural Heritage, nowadays Museums and Institutions still aren’t encouraged to adopt digital procedures as a standard practice to collect data upon the heritage they are called to preserve and promote. One of the main reasons for this lack can be singled out in the high costs connected with these procedures and with their increasing due to difficulties connected with digital survey of artifacts and artworks which present evident intrinsic complexities and peculiarities that cannot be reconnected to recurrences. The aim of this paper is to show the results of a research conducted in order to find the most suitable digital methodology and procedure to be adopted to collect geometric and radiometric data upon mosaics that can straightforward both the preservation of the consistency of information about its geometry and the management of huge amount of data. One of the most immediate application of digital 3d survey of mosaics is the substitution of plaster casts that are usually built to add the third dimension to pictorial or photographic surveys before restoration interventions in order to document their conservation conditions and ease reconstruction procedures. Moreover, digital 3d surveys of mosaics allow to reproduce restoration interventions in digital environment able to perform reliable preliminary evaluations; in addition, 3d reality-based models of mosaics can be used within digital catalogues or for digital exhibitions and reconstruction aims.