Since 2009 the Main Spire of Milan Cathedral has been the subject of an extraordinary conservation work that has affected the whole structure from the top part of Tiburio to the Madonnina’s statue.
This statue is nearly 5 meters and occupies the end of the cusp of the Main Spire and it is constantly monitored by the staff of the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo.
In December 2012, the statue, in the occasion of maintenance activities in progress, was also the subject of a complete restoration: inspected, consolidated and regilded. This was an opportunity to make the metric survey that has allowed us to know, for the first time, its three-dimensional shape. A complex photogrammetric survey was created: this task has made the survey of the Madonnina, already outstanding for the importance of the object in question, a considerable scientific challenge. The survey was particularly challenging for several reasons, but -at the end- it was possible to create a 3D digital real based model. This model is a digital metric and measurable representation of the statue that describes the position, shape and color.
