L’apport de l’imagerie numérique à l’étude d’un décor architectural complexe : le mur de scène du théâtre antique d’Orange

Abstract

The Augustan Theatre of the Roman city of Arausio (Orange, France) is the only one in the Roman West to have preserved its entire stage building; however, it is now completely stripped of the rich marble decoration that originally adorned it. While thousands of fragments of this decoration have survived, it is paradoxically difficult to propose a global restitution, due to the conservation conditions, the presence of ancient restorations and the extreme fragmentation of the remains. As a step of the new researches on the theatre undertaken in 2000, the use of digital imaging to study the figurative set has made it possible to overcome some of these obstacles: the digitisation and gathering of fragments of certain friezes in the same virtual space thanks to the development of a dedicated software tool has considerably facilitated observations, comparisons and restitution proposals. In a second step, the integration of these friezes into the orders of the scaenae fronscould be considered. Whether based on technical criteria (tool traces, fixing mortices, etc.), iconographic or stylistic criteria (determination of characteristic rhythms, volumetric comparisons, restoration of figurative sequences, etc.), the application of these technologies has not only provided an unparalleled visualization tool to date, but also allowed the multiplication of restitution hypotheses and their validation.

Keywords

• Roman theatre
• Orange
• photogrammetry
• architectural decoration
• digital restitution
• figured frieze