A journey through the Ara Pacis in vivid color

The Ara Pacis Museum on the banks of the Tiber in Rome has opened a new immersive multimedia experience for visitors to the ancient altar of peace built by Emperor Augustus. Video mapping technology and 4K laser projection brings the altar’s original vivid polychrome back to life, accompanied by narration, music and sound effects.

The digital projection technique allows for the profiles and colors to be modified and modulated in real time. The bas-reliefs light up at the visitors’ observation point, revealing details, colors, and scenes that restore the original richness of the work.

The choice of individual colors for the Ara Pacis was based on laboratory analysis, comparisons with Roman paintings, especially those of Pompeii, and chromatic research on ancient Greco-Roman architecture and sculpture. The coloration of the plant elements was also possible based on a major study that in 2010 identified more than 50 plant species that actually exist in nature.

A study group formed in recent years to explore the original color scheme of the Ara Pacis has been working on this hypothesis for the past few years, as part of the new Museum’s construction. Specifically, a three-dimensional model of the altar was created, which was then color-rendered according to philological and historical-stylistic criteria. From this model, the idea arose to project rays of colored light directly onto the altar’s marble surfaces to hypothetically recreate the overall, realistic appearance of the original polychrome.

The narration takes visitors on a journey through time, starting with the commission of the Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar of Augustan Peace) by the Senate to celebrate Augustus’ triumphant return to Rome in 13 B.C. It walks viewers through the imagery in the friezes, its emphasis on the Augustan Pax Romana ushering in a new era of prosperity deeply grounded in Rome’s ancient traditions. Augustus incarnates that link as a religious leader presiding over the annual sacrifices performed at the altar and as a member of the gens Julia, descendants of Aeneas and the founders of Rome.

The audio guide also tells the story of how a massive altar was lost — it was in the Tiber flood plain and was ultimately covered in layers of silt 13 feet deep — and then rediscovered starting in the 16th century. It took centuries to find the surviving fragments of the reliefs and the reconstruction of the altar was only completed in 1938, 2001 years after the birth of Augustus.

This video has none of the narration or sound effects of the in-person audio tour, but you can see the reliefs illuminated by the glorious technicolor of the projection system.

* This article was originally published here