On the initiative of the Museo del Cenacolo Vinciano (Milan, Italy), Polo Museale Regionale della Lombardia, Ministero per i beni e la attività culturali and the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro (Rome, Italy), one of the most famous murals in the world, the Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci, were examined using millimeter and terahertz (THz) waves, on 21 October, 2019.

     National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) provides the THz time-domain imaging application technique based on the experience in heritage science research field as a collaboration with the Istituto di Fisica Applicata "Nello Carrara" of the National Research Council (Florence, Italy). This technique provides internal layer structure near the surface, and the system used in this measurement campaign is a T-Ray 5000 system developed by TeraMetrix, Lightwave Division, Luna Innovations (Ann Arbor, USA).

     For mural painting, it is also important to observe deeper area from the surface, and Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics (Kaiserslautern, Germany), which has developed a transportable millimeter-wave imaging system, joined in this measurement campaign.

     The use of these "nondestructive" technologies, for example, provides information on layer structure from the surface to the wall, in addition to previous works by taking small samples for cross-section observation.

     The first preliminary results were presented at the THz Workshop which was held in Kaiserslautern from 3 March, 2020.
Nondestructive observation of the Last Supper by NICT (THz time-domain imaging, on the left) and Fraunhofer ITWM (millimeter-wave imaging, on the right)
Nondestructive observation of the Last Supper by NICT (THz time-domain imaging, on the left) and Fraunhofer ITWM (millimeter-wave imaging, on the right)
Cenacolo Vinciano, Polo Museale Regionale della Lombardia, Ministero per i beni e la attività culturali
URL: https://cenacolovinciano.org/en/

THz Workshop
URL: https://www.itwm.fraunhofer.de/en/fairs_events/2020/2020_03_03_Terahertz-Workshop.html

Press Release of the Fraunhofer ITWM
URL: https://www.itwm.fraunhofer.de/en/press-publications/press-releases/2020_03_16_art-terahertz.html

Contact

Electromagnetic Applications Laboratory

FUKUNAGA Kaori

E-mail: kaoriアットマークnict.go.jp