Prado Museum in Madrid has opened a unique exhibition of copies of famous paintings that were created specifically for visually impaired visitors. Using 3D printing technology, these paintings were made in the form of reliefs that allow blind even to his own “see” painting techniques and strokes of Correggio and other artists. In paintings for visually impaired guests museum has texts using Braille and audio guides, and sighted visitors may be asked opaque glasses to test the same feeling.

This initiative opens museum for all. Not surprisingly, the exhibition enjoys great success among Madrid Society for the Blind. Jose Pedro Gonzales, 56-year-old man who went blind at age 14, told reporters: “It’s incredible. I feel this painting up the details ».

The exhibition includes five paintings: “Touchy” Correggio, version of the famous “Mona Lisa”, written by a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci, “Umbrella” Goya, still-life painter of the Renaissance Van der Amen, “Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan” Diego Velazquez and “Knight with hand on chest ” El Greco – six gems from the collection of the museum.

Of course, the Prado Museum is not the first museum that draws attention to the visually impaired. Trade shows of tactile paintings and sculptures were previously organized the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the National Gallery in London, the Louvre and others. But few have used advances technology 3D-printing. The curator of the exhibition at the Museum of the Prado says that they are the first who added color to the 3D-pictures. “For us it was important to add color, because visualy impired often can still perceive some color,” – he told the New York Times.
Relief paintings were created in cooperation with the Museum of Prado 3D-printing Estudios Durero. They have developed a unique 3D-printing process called Didu, which, in fact, working with chemical ink, which is caused by ultraviolet radiation can create volume. This type of 3D-printing is very expensive. It is reported that a copy of a picture costs about $ 6680.

Employees printing chosen and highlighted the features of each texture pattern, which are important for tactile contact: “In this respect, the small details that may seem insignificant at first glance become fundamental to understand the composition or theme of each image. After about forty hours of processing each picture image is printed with a special ink. Then (after 12 hours) print the method that adds volume initially flat elements. So we get a picture of the appropriate size, which you can touch with your hands. As a result, created version of the picture, which is not only very similar, but has a special texture across the surface. “


Більше інформації