Figurative Art of the Loire Valley through the Prism of the Digital Humanities: ARVIVA and Sculpture 3D Projects.

Abstract

The two research projects, ARVIVA and Sculpture 3D, deal with figurative arts created in the Loire Valley during the Renaissance. At the turn of the 15 th century, the kings of France, enriched by recent belligerent excursions in Italy, took up residence on the banks of the Loire, thereby stimulating a spate of luxurious artistic production in the region [3]. In addition to the famous Loire Valley châteaux (from Amboise to Chambord), this production included painting in all its forms (panel paintings, miniatures, stained glass). It also included sculpture-the art of funeral monuments par excellence, but also of religious devotion-as well as several other art forms, such as goldsmithery, embroidery, tapestry, and the arts of war, of which today there unfortunately remains next to nothing. These two projects are based in the CESR (Centre des Etudes Supérieures de la Renaissance/ Centre for Advanced Renaissance Studies) 1. They form part of a vast interdisciplinary research programme directed by the CESR and entitled Intelligence des Patrimoines (Intelligent Heritage) which involves over 50 research laboratories and 1500 researchers from a wide range of disciplines including "exact" sciences, social sciences, and the humanities 2. The principal aim of this vast scientific programme is to illustrate the potential of interdisciplinary research to generate new ways of apprehending and understanding heritage sites and objects. This undertaking, supported by the France's Region Centre, is the first of its kind in Europe. The two artistic projects presented here, ARVIVA and Sculpture 3D, are strongly invested with the pioneering spirit of the venture. Both projects issue from the impelling elan, which recently animated regional, national and international studies on artistic production in France at the turn of the 15 th century. Within this movement, the Loire Valley occupies a central place. The major importance of Touraine (the region of Tours) as an artistic centre was notably confirmed by the exhibition France