EDITORIAL FOR THE SPECIAL ISSUE ON THE DAFNE PROJECT (DigitalAnastylosis of Frescoes challeNgE)

Anastylosisis a restoration technique that involves recomposing a destroyed architectural work using its original pieces. This is possible by repositioning the recovered fragments in their original location, studying their profiles, and maintaining the logical sense of the artwork, also using sketches or photos of the work before destruction, when available.

We focus on the digital anastylosis of frescoes. This is a very complex task because i) some pieces have gone irretrievably lost, so introducing lack of continuity; ii) the boundaries of the collected pieces do not match like in an ordinary puzzle; iii) there may be interference (in the same collection there may be pieces of different frescoes). Several attempts tore-positioning collected fragments, based on traditional methods, have been done in the last 60 years, but without great success.