3DRap Embraces Art

3DRap embraces art, and does so in a highly prestigious venue in Campania. A photogrammetric scan of the sculpture, 50 hours of 3D printing and two kilograms of eco-friendly PLA from Eumakers were all it took to produce a replica of a marble sculptural group depicting Mithras slaying the bull. This was made possible by Create, 3DRap’s platform that makes it easy to bring an endless variety of projects to life and turn any idea into a physical object by digitizing production processes. The task of reproducing the sculpture of the deity sacrificing the bull was entrusted to 3DRap’s engineers by Ida Gennarelli, director of the Archaeological Museum of Ancient Capua, the Mithraeum and the Campanian Amphitheatre. She curated the exhibition “Mithras in Capua Vetere: Between East and West,” dedicated to Eastern cults, organized by the Museum Network of Campania and held at the Archaeological Museum of Ancient Capua from June 15 to November 5, 2019.

The Replica and Its Exhibition

The print created for the occasion by 3DRap’s engineers is a faithful scale replica of the marble sculptural group discovered in 1938 in the Baths of Mithras at Ostia and now housed in Room II of the Ostia Museum. It is on display at the museum in Capua Vetere alongside works in galleries devoted to Eastern deities that reached the West, on an evocative journey through cult objects, statues and bas-reliefs, as well as video installations and visual and multimedia displays. To produce the replica, 3DRap’s digital prototyping lab kept its printers running for more than two days, using around two kilograms of eco-friendly material: Eumakers-branded PLA, which the company uses for many of its products. The model, obtained through 3D photogrammetry carried out in Ostia, was divided into five parts, then assembled with two-part adhesive and finished with spray filler. All this was possible thanks to Create. “With Create,” explains Domenico Orsi, Additive Manufacturing Director at 3DRap, “we can introduce new organizations to the world of 3D printing, supporting them throughout the product development cycle and helping reduce production costs and time. We are truly proud that one of our prints is being exhibited in a venue as important to art as the Archaeological Museum of Ancient Capua, and we thank the museum for involving us in this wonderful project.”