Frameless scans: on unimages circa 1753 and 2024

Abstract

Between 1750-1753, Giambattista Tiepolo painted the world’s largest continuous ceiling fresco in Würzburg, Franconia, commissioned by Karl Phillip von Greiffenklau. This monumental artwork, spanning 600 square meters, depicts Apollo and the Four Continents. Paolo Patelli’s film project, The Countable Parts of the World, uses a 3D digital model of the fresco to explore historical and media contexts, presenting both as “unimages”. The film project shifts focus from visual to data representations, transforming the fresco’s organized composition into a dynamic globe, revealing new perspectives and distortions through data manipulation.