L’apparato radio-tomografico / The radio-tomographic apparatus

To properly plan a restoration is very useful, in some cases essential, to know as many details as possible on the artwork, on its state of preservation and on its manufacturing technique, details that are obtainable by means of sophisticated radiographic and tomographic analysis of the object under examination. In particular, the possibility of applying tomographic reconstruction techniques to artworks offers a unique possibility to study their three-dimensional internal structure and to gain valuable information on the techniques used for their realization and their current state of preservation. The access to equipment for industrial applications or for medical diagnosis, when available, is rarely a feasible way and because the limitations on the size, shape and materials of the objects that can be analysed, both because of the difficulty of carrying precious works of art outside the restoration laboratories. For this reason, the availability at the CCR of an equipment for radiography and tomography is of incomparable importance for the activities of the Centre. The digital radio-tomographic apparatus described in this chapter was developed as part of the project neu_ART and has been optimized on the type of artworks in study and restoration at the CCR, with very different shapes, sizes and materials. This apparatus is unique in Italy for versatility and size of analysable artefacts, and for this reason it makes the CCR, both for the equipment available and for skills acquired during the project, on the cutting edge in the application of these analytical techniques to cultural heritage.