I spy with my little eye, a crack in a Renaissance masterpiece! Well, that particular “job” has fallen onto the shoulders of a robot now, at least at Madrid’s Reina Sofia museum in Spain. A huge robot will scan a painting of a masterpiece, where it will do so in an extremely slow process since it has to snap hundreds of microscopic shots via the use of infrared and ultraviolet photography. This particular robot will allow restorers to check out cracks, scratches and creases which are difficult to see at times with the naked eye, in addition to underlying preparatory sketches and other touch-ups.
This unique robot has been given the nickname “Pablito”, and that is because its first work involved Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica” canvas that showcased the resulting carnage of the Spanish Civil War. Pablito is no graceful robot, as it measures a whopping 9 meters long and 3.5 meters high, tipping the scales at approximately 1,200kg when fully assembled. In fact, its work on Guernica involved snapping 22,000 or so photos, so good luck trying to pore through all of that! And since Pablito needs no rest, it can work round the clock.
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