Digitizing the Barberini Collection Canvases: Guidelines, Protocols, and Quality Parameters

The paper presents an ongoing experiment aimed at defining a protocol for the digitisation of the canvases belonging to the collections of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica at Palazzo Barberini in Rome. The experiment has been developed within the framework of the project MUSE – MUseum management, enhancement and accessibility: a Sustainable digital Ecosystem of interactive digital collections, oriented towards the definition and validation of a methodological and procedural protocol for the prototypical creation of an interactive ecosystem of digital models of the collections and of the museum itself. Within this context, the issue of digitisation has been addressed in relation to the meanings associated with the concept of the digital twin, with particular attention paid to the role assumed by the digital copy within the processes of constructing the twin itself. The research has emphasised the qualitative parameters and attributes of the digital copy, understood as indicators of reliability, with reference to the regulatory framework outlined by the National Plan for the Digitisation of Cultural Heritage (PND) and its related Guidelines. The experiment concerned a sample of canvases, on which photogrammetric and high-definition photographic acquisition methodologies at controlled resolution were tested, with the aim of defining digital copies based on principles of data neutrality and process transparency.