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The light manufacturer Osram is equipping the Sistine Chapel in Rome with a new type of LED solution. After 500 years, the historically outstanding art works can now be viewed to a level of precision never seen before, and the especially art-friendly lighting enables significantly higher luminance values. In addition, 60% less power is consumed compared to the existing lighting installation.
"Art presents the most demanding requirements on light. Following the globally unique lighting solution in the Lenbachhaus Museum in Munich, the world-renowned frescoes in the Sistine Chapel are now being subjected to the same extremely high lighting specifications,” says Peter Laier, Osram's Chief Technology Officer and executive board member responsible for the company's general lighting business.
Around 7,000 LEDs will homogeneously illuminate the Sistine Chapel starting next year. The color spectrum was custom-adapted on a scientific basis to the color pigments of the paintings, including the pigments in the Michelangelo frescoes. The precision lighting ensures that the art is uniformly illuminated without glare for visitors. The luminaires are to be installed away from view below the windows to make sure that light is emitted in the same direction as the natural daylight. Until now, the art could only be seen according to the ingress of daylight and viewing was limited by technological and conservational constraints.
The conservational protection of the art works played an especially important role during the planning of the project, and the new LED solution is significantly gentler than alternative artificial forms of light. Luminance of approximately 50 to 100 lux (previously 5 to 10 lux) ensures that the art can be clearly discerned, but with as little ageing as possible.
In addition to the quality of the lighting, the new solution is significantly more economic than the previous system. Although the level of luminance will be increased many times over, power consumption is expected to be reduced by more than 60%. The reason for this is not only the implementation of energy-saving LEDs but also the lighting design planning to illuminate the works with precision and completely without light spill.
This pilot project has the working title of LED4Art and is subsidized by the European Subsidy Program for Information and Communication Technology within the Framework Program on Competitiveness and Innovation (PSP-CIP). The aim of the subsidy program is to demonstrate new possibilities for LED technology with regard to energy efficiency and improved quality of light, and thus to achieve more rapid market penetration for the new technology. In addition to the project coordinator Osram, other partners involved are the University of Pannonia in Hungary, the Institut de Recerca en Energia de Catalunya in Spain and the planning offices of Faber Technica in Italy.
