In 2025, Haltadefinizione celebrates two decades of innovation dedicated to the conservation and valorization of the cultural heritage, and one year since joining Gruppo Panini Cultura. Since its inception, Haltadefinizione has transformed our way of observing, valuing and making use of fine art, thanks to its advanced technology and pioneering spirit.
Hatadefinizione’s journey began in 2006 with the world’s first ultra-high definition gigapixel image of a work of art, Gaudenzio Ferrari’s fresco of the Life of Christ in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in the town of Varallo. Soon after, in 2007, came the digitization of the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, with its 16.1 GB, which remained for a long time the largest digital image ever created.
The process of digital acquisition and post-production for Leonardo’s Last Supper was particularly complex, due to the limits of technology at the time, and to its very high level of detail. The data processing phase required six months to produce the definitive version of the ultra-high definition file. This marked an important step forward in the evolution of the digitization of objects of art.
These two successful productions opened the way to new, more ambitious projects, and in 2009 Haltadefinizione took on its greatest task until then, the digitization of Giotto’s frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua and in the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi. For both cycles of paintings, Haltadefinizione developed a new kind of immersive 360-degree viewer, that allows you to take a virtual tour that draws you into the work in a whole new way.
That same year, the company produced the interior decoration of the Main Conference Room at the heart of the G8 Conference in L’Aquila, which featured a spectacular panoramic view of the Gran Sasso, made from an ultra-high definition print measuring almost 600 square yards (500 sq. m.). The view is a simulation of a panoramic window facing the peaks, looking west toward the eastern slope of the karst basin at Campo Pericoli above L’Aquila. The image is the result of 400 individual digital photographs taken from the saddle of Monte Aquila, at an altitude of 7,661 feet (2,335 m).
One of Haltadefinizione’s most iconic projects was the digitization of the Shroud of Turin in 2010. The ultra-high definition digital acquisition of such an important symbol of faith required great care and precision. Over the next few years, Haltadefinizione has conducted many other important digitization projects on priceless masterpieces in prestigious institutions like the Uffizi Gallery, the Pinacoteca di Brera and the Galleria Borghese and Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica in Rome. In 2015, the company turned its attention to the famous frescoes in the Chapel of San Brizio, a masterpiece by Luca Signorelli in Orvieto Cathedral. The result was an unprecedented close-up view of this monumental work.
Haltadefinizione has had two cover stories in National Geographic magazine about its revolutionary digitization projects, which stand as a testament to the company’s international impact.
In 2017, Haltadefinizione became part of the publishing company Franco Cosimo Panini Editore, based in Modena, with thirty years of experience promoting and publishing the cultural heritage and museum collections. Their integrated experience makes them able to unite the advanced technology and digitization skills that create and manage ultra-high resolution digital images, with the editorial and marketing skills of a publishing company. This all works to strengthen our common commitment to the promotion and social uses of the cultural heritage.
Thanks to this synergy, Haltadefinizione was able to take a central role in the Estense Digital Library project. This was the first digital platform in Italy, built for viewing, sharing and annotating the digitized contents of the Biblioteca Estense Universitaria in Modena. As part of this project, the company produced digital versions of their collection of large-format geographic maps, most notably the Cantino Planisphere, which Ercole I, Duke of Ferrara, commissioned in 1501 from Alberto Cantino, who served as his emissary in Portugal from 1501 to 1505. The map, measuring about seven feet by three and a half feet, or 87 by 41 inches (220x105 cm), contains the first description of the coast of Brazil and the then-recent discoveries of Christopher Columbus.
Over the next few years there have been many more projects of digitization and promotional development, with partners including the Museo del Novecento in Milan, the Galleria dell’Accademia of Florence and the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica in Rome. In 2019, on occasion of the five-hundredth anniversary of Raphael’s death, Haltadefinizione took part in a three-day study dedicated to La Fornarina.
In 2022, coinciding with the reconfiguration of the interior spaces of the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, the museum’s directorate began an ambitious digitization campaign on more than a hundred works, including paintings, statues, sculptures, altarpieces and furnishings. In addition to ultra-high definition digital photography, the project also used multispectral UV and IR scans, as well as 3D digital acquisitions for mapping statues and objects. The aim was to provide the museum with an ultra-high- definition digital archive, able to meet all the needs of online and offline applications, as well as cataloging, reproduction, documentation of conservation status and study.
Specialized in ultra-high-definition digital photography, 3D, multispectral surveys as well as reproduction of paintings and three-dimensional objects, Haltadefinizione combines cutting-edge technologies with an innovative approach to document the conservation status of works and to offer concrete solutions for the protection, study and promotion of the cultural heritage.
This commitment goes beyond just conservation. With these new technologies, we can bring exact replicas of great masterpieces together in one space, allowing the public to view works that are held in distant museums around the world, in a single exhibition.
The company’s latest effort is revolutionizing our way of consuming the arts, with immersive technologies like MR (Mixed Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality) viewers, eye tracking and gestural commands. In 2024 at the Fuorisalone exposition in Milan, we presented an immersive experience based on Giotto’s frescoes in the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, where visitors could explore an ultra-high definition version of the scenes of the life of Saint Francis. A similar project took place in Bologna, during We Make Future 2024, with the virtual model of the Tomb of the Diver of Paestum, which highlighted a piece of our archeological heritage with the latest digital acquisition technology. This masterpiece of ancient Greek funerary art was made available for interactive viewing, capable of revealing details invisible to the naked eye.
These projects are the result of our two decades of innovation and research. After all this time, Haltadefinizione has created one of the most prestigious ultra-high definition digital archives of art images in the world, which includes masterpieces such as the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, the frescoes of Giotto, the works of Perugino, Botticelli, Caravaggio and many other masters. Each image, acquired with cutting-edge technologies, is not only a valuable conservation tool, but also a resource that finds application in cultural, educational, editorial and commercial settings. It is a concrete example of how technology can not only protect but also increase the value and enjoyment of the artistic heritage.
In 2025, Haltadefinizione celebrates twenty years of innovation, a milestone in the evolution of a pioneering idea into a key point of reference in the field of digitization of cultural goods. From the first gigapixel image of a world-famous work of art to 3D modelling and multispectral analysis, all the way to the development of advanced tools for restoration and valorization, each step brings us closer to new ways of exploring art.
Looking toward the future, our challenge is to continue on this path, by integrating artificial intelligence, augmented reality and new immersive technologies to make art even more accessible and usable. With the same passion that guided our first twenty years, Haltadefinizione is preparing to write the next chapters in its history, where innovation and the beauty of art will continue their journey side by side.
