By Mary Margaret Graham, Patron Program Committee member

As we enjoy the newly transformed galleries for art of ancient Greece, Rome, and the Byzantine Empire, which opened December 18 at the heart of the George D. and Margo Behrakis Wing, let’s take a minute to focus on one of the magnificent objects that adorn the “Gods and Goddesses” gallery: a Greek bust of Demeter or Persephone dating to 450–400 BCE, made of a thin slab of clay and intricately painted. Mei-An Tsu, the conservator responsible for conserving all the large, stone objects in the Behrakis Wing, led a team to prepare it for display, always keeping in mind that less is more and less is better when it comes to restoring and handling fragile objects.

Mei-An, who also led the Conservation in Action projects for the Antioch Marine mosaic and the Etruscan Tetnies sarcophagi, said the conservation effort of this fragile sculpture included some unique challenges.

For example, would the animal-hide glue joints from a 19th-century conservation need to be replaced? This and other questions had to be answered before Mei-An and the team could determine that the object was suitable for display. As work progressed, including mounting preparation by Brett Angell, senior exhibition preparator, Objects Conservation, they came up with the idea to create a 3D-printed model of the object. The model, rather than the original, would be used to fabricate the form-fitted mount, enabling the safe display of the object, and would obviate the need to handle the object frequently. The preventative approach also meant the sculpture would not need to undergo the lengthy treatment of disassembling the 19th-century repairs.

True collaboration enabled this project to take place. This restoration was the first time laser 3D scanning and 3D printing were used together in the direct care of the collection. Working with Dr. Peter Der Manuelian and Julia Viani Puglisi of the Harvard Museum of Ancient Near East, they 3D scanned the object and produced a printable digital file. Also, thanks to Kyla Hygysician, designer, Exhibitions and Design, whose husband works at FromLabs, a 3D printer company in Somerville, an exact size model of the object was created in 3D.

Mei-An initiated a final collaboration when she reached out to Jessica Doonan, manager of Accessibility. Feeling for Form, one of the MFA’s Accessibility programs, is for visitors with sight problems to feel and handle some of the MFA’s treasures. Together with Phoebe Segal, Mary Bryce Comstock Curator of Greek and Roman Art, and Laure Marest, Cornelius and Emily Vermeule Assistant Curator of Greek and Roman Art, the team realized that these same 3D printing techniques could be used to create a series of exact replicas of some of the ancient objects in these galleries, expanding the Feeling for Form program significantly and opening the wonders of this collection to a whole new group participating in Accessibility programs.

Patrons have a chance to interact with members of the MFA’s Conservation and Collections Management team and learn more about other exciting projects during the upcoming in-person event “Exploring the New Conservation Center” on March 15, 2022.