Reconstructing the Illusion: VH on Bernini’s solid-perspective for Felipe IV

This chapter describes and critically reviews all the phases of an enquiry supported by the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid on an almost unknown project of a monument for Felipe IV of Spain in the portico of the Basilica of S. Maria Maggiore in Rome designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The process consists of analysis and re-drawing after the existing documents, of modeling of the solid-perspective sacellum and the bronze statue actually made by Girolamo Lucenti, and of presentation and dissemination of the results, in form of video in the exhibition in Madrid and in other visual product to illustrate scientific publications. This process has been didactically divided between digital heritage, the translation of tangible historical-testimonial documents into digital formats, and virtual heritage, the production of original digital contents aimed at visually recreating the unbuilt monument and its perspective deceptive effects.