Reproduction of sacred artistic masterpieces with the use of 3D printing is slowly becoming the domain of many Polish companies. Last year, Michael and Scott reported on the 3D scanning of the Triptych of Luban, housed in the 13th century St. Mary Magdalene Church in Poland, which was later 3D printed from woodFill filament by Fucco Design. This year another polish company Monkeyfab did exactly the same with another sculpture, “Agony in the Garden”, standing in the historic Church in Ptaszkowa, attributed to the famous Gothic and Renaissance sculptor Veit Stoss. Now, yet another polish group, Trojwymiarowi.pl from Bialystok, joined this trend, with a 3D scanned and 3D printed historic Epitaph from St. Peter of Alcantara and St. Anthony Church of Padua in Wegrow, Poland.
The original epitaph is over 4 meters high. To create the replica, first the original was 3D scanned by Darek Wilczewski from Limbus who used a FARO 3D scanner to capture the original. Then, the 3D scan was transferred to a separate firm, IMAGO 3D, where Christopher Matuk divided the model into 35 separate parts and optimized everything for 3D printing. Trojwymiarowi.pl were given the task of printing the sculpture at 1:4 scale.
The team, led by Mateusz Stefanczuk, used an Ultimaker 2 to 3D print all of the parts with white PLA from colorFabb. When the 3D printing process was complete, models were cleared of supports and painted gold. All components were assembled to a shield, cut out of cellular polycarbonate. The frame was printed with 18 elements and glued and painted in matt black. At the end of the whole project, everything was glued together using epoxy glue.
The project was ordered by St. Anthony of Padua and St. Peter of Alcantara Church, who wants to present it to the blind childreen visiting the church, helping them discover Polish masterpieces of sacred art by touch. What’s more, thanks to the project, the historic sculpture is now digitally archived and can be easily used in the future in case of any reconstruction or restoration works that may be needed.
