The observation of Michelangelo's Moses monumental complex at the Church of St. Peter in Chains and in virtual reality

The perception of reality depends on ambient conditions and one’s own personal physical and mental state. New problems arise when we use modeling to provide “remote” visits to monumental environments and viewing of artworks. Current technological tools already allow us to distinguish between viewing an artwork reproduction and viewing an immersive virtually reconstructed image of the same artwork (virtual reality). Other issues involve the possibilities provided by modern technologies to manipulate the images, including three-dimensional images. Of course, we cannot ignore the inherent risk that any variation may falsify the communication. Therefore we need to experiment at length in order to establish the limits of these variations. Within the framework of a valuable interdisciplinary dialogue, the experiments which have been carried out in recent months on important sculptural works and monumental environments all focus on these problematic issues. The goal of the experiments was to scientifically analyze how the brain reacted when a person looked at artworks or architectural environments and then assess how these reactions influenced the communication of documentation and survey. This paper focuses primarily on the statue of Moses by Michelangelo in the Basilica of St. Peter in Chains in Rome. We believe that this experiment can lead to interesting developments in digital communication; in any case, it will be exciting to consider the reliability of the communication and the possibility to vary the perception of an object.