A Comparative Study of the High-Fidelity Computer Reconstruction of Byzantine Art in Cyprus in the Past and Present

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Computer reconstructions of heritage sites provide us with a means of visualising past environments, allowing us a glimpse of the past that might otherwise be difficult to appreciate. However, it is essential that these reconstructions incorporate all the physical evidence for a site, otherwise there is a very real danger of misrepresenting the past. Key features when reconstructing past environments are authentic illumination and the environment itself. Today the interior of our buildings are lit by bright and steady light, but past societies relied on daylight and flame for illumination, and thus, as our perception of an environment is directly affected by the amount and nature of light reaching the eye, any computer reconstruction must accurately model such lighting conditions. Furthermore, in many graphics applications, including virtual archaeology, it is assumed that light travels through a non participating medium, normally clear air or a vacuum. For a great majority of synthesised images, this is a satisfactory assumption. However, in some situations it is necessary to include the participating media such as fog, smoke, or dust to provide the required level of realism within the images. In archaeological sites in particular, the materials used to provide interior light, including candles and wood fires would have caused smoke, and in addition, smoke from, for example incense burners for liturgical purposes, might have significantly affected visibility in these environments. In this feasibility study we will undertake the high-fidelity reconstruction of Byzantine art, that is the rare visible remains of the long lasting Byzantine Empire, which grew out of the Eastern Roman Empire. The Byzantines were much preoccupied with the use of gold and favoured it extensively in their churches. In the icons, massive wall and ceiling mosaics and frescoes, the use of gold was meant to illuminate the pictures from within . This lighting effect in combination with certain architectural elements of the churches was used to create certain illusions, including the holy people on the cupola mosaics seeming to step out of the golden background, approaching the viewer . Gold was not only used for the pictures, but also for candlesticks and in hanging candelabra. Byzantine architects in fact paid careful attention to the use of direct and indirect lighting in certain parts of the church building, depending on the firmly defined religious value of the respective space. This religious value was also symbolised by the architectural form and the use of pictures. We have chosen Cypriot Byzantine art, because of its outstanding quality and the geographical closeness of the sites. During Byzantine times, Cyprus followed closely the art and cultural trends of the capital, Constantinople, with especially high-quality art. Today it is in this tiny former rich and peaceful province of the Byzantine Empire that many of most precious surviving relics of Byzantine art are to be found.This feasibility study will benefit from two key recent developments which now make it possible to develop such highly authentic reconstructions of ancient Byzantine environments: progress in high fidelity physically based computer graphics including accurately modelling of participating media, and the availability of novel High Dynamic Range displays and high-precision eye-tracking systems. The goal of this feasibility study is to determine whether there is indeed a significant difference in the way in which people view Byzantine art today, and as it may have appeared in the past as they were displayed in their original environments and were illuminated by candle light, oil lamps and day light.The results from this project should provide new insights into how Byzantine art may have been viewed in the past and provide guidelines for future high-fidelity computer reconstructions of cultural heritage artefacts.