This project is a site-specific installation of monumental paintings arranged in the magnificent setting of Sala degli Scrutini of Palazzo Ducale in Venice.
The lighting system has been studied in order to provide the most immersive experience for visitors, as it merges evenly with the space, providing the adequate lighting while the light sources are almost invisible.
Because of the nature of the installation and the historical setting, the challenges of this projects were multiple: the size of the paintings and their different textures, the mounting restrictions and the artist’s requests.
Testing and calculations were carried out in order to find the right combination of sources, optical system, mounting method and dimming control to address these challenges.
Since no attachment points to the historic fabric of the building were allowed, the final solution comprised a track system supported and fixed on the custom-designed structure where the paintings were mounted on.
Thanks to this solution the fixtures could be installed in the optimum position to wall wash the entire surface of the painting as well as avoiding glare.
The resulting installation set almost imperceptibly into the richly decorated ceiling without drawing attention to the fixtures while providing a wash of high CRI light over the paintings.
The installation and orientation of the fixtures had to take in specific consideration the shadows because of many overhanging elements that are part of the artworks, this resulted in the orientation of each beam in order to eliminate as much as possible elongated shadows and therefore reduce the hyper dramatic effect as desired by the artist.
The artist’s request was to achieve a natural and uniform lighting as the one he gets while painting in his studio, and because of the dark colours used and the gold details present on the paintings it was necessary to give highlights in order to provide the right illuminance to read properly every and each element present on the artworks.
The presence of two openings on one side of the hall made it imperative for the artificial lighting to be balanced evenly on each painting, therefore the dimming values were set individually for each luminaire.
The powerful LED projectors installed are equipped with wall washer lenses, a colour temperature of 3500K and a CRI>95, in some cases we used spotlights to give special highlight to specific details on the paintings.
The control system used is Casambi which allowed the remote controlling of the dim values and the setting of different scenes to provide the right illuminance throughout the day as well as different scenarios for the events that took place in the hall during the installation period.
