The four examples below represent key categories and relationships within the Raphael model. It is important to note that they are incomplete as presented here; i.e. relations exist in the model's code that have here been left out for the sake of clean visualisations. This is particularly the case for instances where a relation in the model references a node that would itself be at the centre of another visualisation, such as when, in the Digital Document model, paintings are referenced.
The examples provided here are intended as generics that stand in for other objects in their shared category. The mapping of NG1171, for example, can be taken to represent how any painting or object would be represented in CIDOC-CRM, and likewise the Raphael mapping is suggestive of how any person/creator would appear.
Within this presentation, in the most generic sense an object is any physical or conceptual thing that needs to be discussed, examined or described. This can include complete cultural heritage objects such as paintings, sculptures, books & manuscripts, shards of pot, or even whole buildings. A specific object can also be a fragment, section or part of a complete cultural heritage object, such as a painting stretcher, scraps of paper, pieces of broken sculpture, and flakes of glaze/paint, or even analytical samples that have been deliberately removed. Actual museum objects, like paintings, are composed of several different sub-objects, such as paint layers, canvas, nail, etc. All of these different sub-objects can be described individually, if required.
Within this presentation, in the most generic sense a creator/actor is any person, groups or organisation involved with or responsible for the activities in a given event. This can include artists, authors and even conservation scientists who might take a sample from an object or carry out analytical work.
Further events in an object’s life can cover a wide range of activities, including the commissioning of the work, its movement, any alterations or conservation treatments, additional changes of ownership, etc. Describing, in detail, the full range of these further events goes beyond the scope of this presentation, but the generic relationships common to most of them have been described.
Providing a full list of all the possible types of objects and creators that may be considered within conservation documentation goes well beyond the scope of this presentation. Where appropriate reference to and use of existing vocabularies xviii will be used within this work-package to define or identify these types.