The Approval of the Franciscan Rule. Virtual Experience among the Characters of Giotto's Work

Within the exhibition "Giotto's colours" opened to public from the 10th of April to the 5th of September 2010 in Assisi, the National Research Council realized an innovative project creating a virtual environment from the scene "The Rule Confirmation", painted by Giotto in the Upper Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi at the end of the XIII century. The scene has been represented in 3D, starting from an accurate study of Giotto's space, characters, proportions and the models have been "mapped" using the original artist's painting. On this base two virtual reality installations have been realized. In the first one it is possible to virtually enter into the Giotto's Fresco. The scene is brought to life: characters are animated and represented while performing the action painted by the artist. Visitors can interact within the virtual space and mix with the characters without the support of traditional interfaces (mouse, joystick, keyboards, devices) but just using body movements, in a simple and natural way. In this way the space illustrated by Giotto becomes a place of experience open to multi- sensorial narration and participation. On the contrary, the approach of the second installation is descriptive and interpretative, focused on the spatial and perspective investigation of Giotto's fresco, in comparison with the 3d reconstruction. The primary objective of this experiment is to involve the observer in the scene painted by Giotto and to enable the visitor to feel and understand the message that Giotto was communicating.