Studio Fathom commemorated the 151st anniversary of the discovery of The Winged Victory of Samothrace with a stunningly detailed replica 3D printed using the Objet500 Connex3. They also used the opportunity to talk a little about how 3D scanning and 3D printing can make history accessible without having to visit a museum.
The Winged Victory of Samothrace is the last surviving piece of a monument dedicated to a forgotten naval victory. The monument depicted the winged goddess Nike landing on the bow of a ship carved from marble and would have had a fountain simulating sea spray in front of it. It is easily one of the most iconic pieces of recovered antiquity ever found and holds a place of honour in the Louvre at the top of the grand staircase landing. She is known not only for her dynamic pose thought to have depicted her triumphantly shouting victory as she landed on a ship, but also for the elegance of her delicately carved draping robes lightly clinging to skin damp from the sea air.
Nike of Samothrace has been duplicated numerous times. Replicas of her stand in front of buildings as diverse as court houses, colleges and even casinos all over the world. This isn’t even the first time that she’s been 3D printed. But this is the first time that she’s been 3D printed on an Objet500 Connex3. Arguably Stratasys’ most advanced 3D printer, the Connex3 can print in multiple colours and multiple materials with incredible detail with a variety of textures and rigidity. And even when printed in one colour, the results are really quite beautiful. Of course VeroBlue is an advanced plastic well suited to printing highly detailed 3D models.
Over on the Studio Fathom blog, Prototyping Studio Manager Tony Slavik talks about the process of creating the replica and how 3D scanning and 3D printing is being readily used to preserve our history and the way that it could help us learn more about fossils and ancient works of art. It’s really a pretty great read about the techniques and thought processes involved in creating highly detailed 3D prints like this version of Nike of Samothrace.
Says Tony, “Another useful application would be to repair and resurface missing parts. Through scanning and printing, you could take many pieces, assemble them in a 3D CAD package, heal the small missing surfaces and cracks, and create a solid model to show what all of the pieces had originally looked like.”
The original Winged Victory statue is already a powerful piece of art. She stands atop her crumbling ship. Armless and headless, still proudly shouting victory despite her wounds. She is a reminder that victory rarely leaves you whole, and that history often forgets even the greatest of accomplishments. She is both humbling and inspiring, and it would be nothing short of amazing to see the monument 3D scanned and turned over to some 3D artists and historians to restore and reconstruct. Not only so we can see her as she was intended, but so we can actually feel what it was like to stand beneath her shadow. I really want to live in a future where we can 3D print our past, and I admire the people making it happen.
You can learn more about The Winged Victory of Samothrace from the Louvre’s on-line archive, and read the whole conversation with Tony Slavik here.
Source: Studio Fathom
