Several experimental tests were then carried out on such replica to interpret its mechanical behaviour, including some load tests to study its elastic behaviour, and some hygroscopic ones (i.e. Based on such information a hypothesis was developed about the construction technique originally used, and by applying this technique (which included soaking the Poplar wood lamellae in water and adapting them on a spherical counter form) an exact structural replica was manufactured. Anatomic examination confirmed that in Medusa’s and in other cases the lamellae were made of Poplar wood ( Populus alba L.). Computed Tomography showed that the wooden structure consists of wooden lamellae forming two adjacent almost spherical shell layers glued together and having the grain directions approximately perpendicular to each other. During the restoration campaign it underwent in 1998–2002, several information were collected about its wooden structure, geometry and materials used. Among them, is the Medusa shield painted in Italy by Caravaggio around 1598, and presently exhibited in the Uffizi Gallery (Florence). Both the shape and the materials are distinctive aspects of these parade shields and depend on the historic period they were manufactured. Even if their exact function is not clear, it is known they were not used in battle according to most scholars, they might have been used as display objects, carried by soldiers and retainers of princes and noblemen in military and religious parades, or as tournament prizes. The parade shields are artefacts present in the 15 th century, up to the 17 th.
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