State Hermitage and Croc VR created a virtual tour of the gallery of the history of ancient painting

2019: Creating a virtual tour of the ancient painting history gallery

The State Hermitage, together with CROC VR - developers of projects based on immersive technologies - created a virtual model of the Gallery of the History of Ancient Painting, which served as the basis for a VR excursion. The virtual model of the hall will visit cities throughout Russia as part of the Hermitage Days program - from Kaliningrad to Sakhalin. This was reported on September 2, 2019 by CROC VR. Spectators will be able to walk around the virtual gallery, view art from any angle, including those inaccessible to ordinary visitors, as well as learn the history of the creation of the hall and its masterpieces.

The Gallery of the History of Ancient Painting is one of the parts of the New Hermitage. The gallery consists of nine parts, covered with domes on sails, decorated with images of artists. Among them is the author of the project of the New Hermitage - Leo von Klenze. The gallery recalls the traditions of ancient art, its history and works. The paintings built into the walls on subjects taken from literary sources and myths were performed by the German artist Georg Hiltenshperger in imitation of the technique of ancient encaustics - wax paints on brass boards. According to August, the hall exhibits the works of representatives of neoclassicism - the Italian Antonio Canova (1757-1822), the Dane Bertel Torvaldsen (1764-1844) and a number of other masters of the late XVIII-XIX centuries. The works of Antonio Canova make up the most significant part of the Gallery's exposition. One of the facets of the master's work is demonstrated by the "Penitent Mary Magdalene" - a work in which the image of a Christian saint is created. Among the most famous sculptural groups of the sculptor belongs to the "Kiss of Cupid and Psyche." The god of love and his beautiful lover are frequent characters of Canova: his statue "Cupid" and the marble composition "Cupid and Psyche," depicting lovers contemplating a butterfly, are also exhibited here. Three works are presented by Bertel Torvaldsen: Ganymede, Portrait of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, Shepherd.

Immersive technologies - technologies virtual and - augmented reality allow not only to visit inside the virtual model, but also as if to walk through the hall, approach works of art, examine them from all sides, as well as listen to information about a painting or sculpture. The project allows you to consider in detail more than 60 exact 3D copies of the Hermitage exhibits. High realism of the image is achieved thanks to a special method visualization of data of photogrammetry in a virtual environment. With its help, CROC VR specialists have already created a virtual model of the Jupiter Hall of the State Hermitage, which was presented in 2017.

The reconstruction of the gallery became a technically more time-consuming process due to the unique painting on its walls, the large number of windows and mosaics on the floor. White marble sculptures also complicated digitization - photogrammetry of this material is much more difficult than working with a dark stone. Experts conducted multiple re-shoots, paying special attention to the details and transfer of the texture of each item in the collection.

Digitization of one object of art - from shooting to texturing - took from 10 to 30 hours, depending on the size and complexity of the exhibit. Most of the time took the creation of virtual copies of paintings on the walls - one of the most important components of the exposition.

"Projects related to virtual and augmented reality help us develop the Big Hermitage concept and become more accessible to visitors in a variety of ways. Thanks to our joint projects with CROC VR, art connoisseurs from different parts of the world and regions of Russia can see the best exhibitions of the Hermitage and masterpieces of its collection. The virtual hall of Jupiter has already been "visited" by thousands of people - and everyone returns to reality with admiration and dreams of visiting the real Hermitage. This is also important for us: after all, no technologies will replace the originals and the spirit of the place, but they allow you to become a little closer to them. We are glad that visitors will also be able to enjoy the Gallery of the History of Ancient Painting - one of the most interesting halls of the museum, " noted' Alexey Bogdanov, Deputy General Director of the State Hermitage Museum '

"Our team creates virtual simulators and digital models to improve safety in industry. The accumulated expertise allows you to make projects in any area, even such complex as the digitization of paintings and sculptures, where it is important not to miss a single detail. The VR excursion project aims to digitally preserve cultural property and empower museum displays through technology, " noted' Ilya Simonov, director of CROC VR '

2017: Creating a virtual copy of Jupiter Hall

On September 25, 2017, the State Hermitage Museum and the CROC Virtual Reality Center presented a project to create a virtual copy of the Jupiter Hall of the State Hermitage Museum. The joint project was first shown to the public at the Primorsky State Art Gallery at the opening of the Hermitage Days in Vladivostok. From September 26 to October 1, 2017, visitors to the building of the future Hermitage - Vladivostok center will be able to virtually visit the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and walk around Jupiter Hall.

Jupiter Hall is one of the grandest halls in the New Hermitage building. The collections of the Department of the Antique World of the State Hermitage are exhibited here - Roman marble sarcophagi and a collection of Roman portrait, considered one of the best in the world. The collection of Roman portraits includes more than 100 exhibits, including world famous masterpieces, such as the portrait of Philip Arab, the "Portrait of the Roman Woman" (the so-called "Syrian Woman"), the portrait of Lucia Vera and Balbin. The statue of Jupiter, which gave the name to the hall, is one of the largest ancient sculptures stored in museums in the world.

With the help of virtual reality technologies (VR, Virtual Reality), it will now be possible to get acquainted with the richest collection of ancient art presented in the Hermitage. With the help of special VR glasses, viewers will be able to walk around the virtual hall of Jupiter, moving using a joystick, approach any work of art, listen to information about the time and history of its creation, author, art style. Such a trip makes it possible to feel like a real visitor to the museum.

The virtual model of the hall consists of "digitized" in 3D format exhibits and interiors stored in the memory of a high-performance workstation. High image realism is achieved using a new method for visualizing photogrammetry data in a VR environment developed by CROC specialists.

"In the center" Hermitage - Vladivostok "it is planned to hold various temporary exhibitions on the topic, at which you can see the exhibits of the Hermitage. But how do you show visitors to these exhibitions the halls in which the exhibits are housed in our museum? After all, they are real works of art. We want to give visitors to the center the opportunity to feel in the Hermitage. Virtual reality allows us to do this and become even closer to the audience, opening up art connoisseurs the opportunity to join the heritage of the ancient era and see one of the best collections of the Hermitage using the latest technologies. In the course of working with CROC specialists, we managed to create a unique product with high accuracy that conveys all the details of sculptures and interiors. We put an experiment and we are very interested in the reviews of visitors about this technology, "said Alexey Valentinovich Bogdanov, Deputy General Director of the State Hermitage

CROC specialists used photogrammetry technology in the project - a way to visualize physical objects, which allows them to combine their photos into a single 3D image. This technology allows you to create photorealistic 3D images and, after special processing, demonstrate them in virtual reality. Thanks to the methodology developed at the CROC, the interiors and furnishings of the hall were recreated, sculptures - a total of 46 exhibits. Photogrammetry technology combined with virtual reality allows you to consider the smallest details of sculptures and evaluate the subtle work of ancient masters.

"The implementation of the project with one of the largest museums in the world and the largest museum in Russia, whose name sounds in the world decade after decade, is both a huge responsibility and an opportunity to contribute to the preservation of the country's cultural wealth for future generations. Such modern approaches to working with works of art in the very near future will be a good help to the work of museums, expanding the possibilities of their exposition activities. Today we can create highly realistic copies of museum halls and individual exhibits, which require high-performance stationary computers to demonstrate. I am sure that with the development of technologies and an increase in the performance of mobile devices, art lovers will be able to walk around the halls of the Hermitage without leaving their homes, "commented Leus Aleksandr, Director of the Virtual Reality Center of CROC

The technical solution is supposed to be used in the exhibition centers of the State Hermitage Museum and at other museum events.