Artificial intelligence (AI) can be formed to see details in images that escape the human eye, and a neural network of AI has identified something unusual on a face in a Raphael painting: it was not painted by Raphael.
The face in question belongs to St Joseph, seen at the top left of the table known as Madonna della Rosa (Or Rose Madonna).
The researchers have actually debated for a long time, whether or not the painting is an original from Raphaël. Although it requires various evidence to conclude the origin of a work of art, a new method of analysis based on an AI algorithm took on the side of those who think that at least some of the blows were in the hands of another artist.
Researchers from the United Kingdom and the United States have developed a personalized analysis algorithm based on the works we know are the result of the brush of the Italian master.
“Using a deep features analysis, we used authenticated Raphaël paintings to form the computer to recognize its style to a very detailed degree, brush strokes, color palette, shade and all aspects of work”, mathematician and computer scientist Hassan Ugail from the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom in the United Kingdom explain In 2023, when the researchers’ results were published.
“The computer sees much more deep than the human eye, at the microscopic level.”
Automatic learning processes must generally be formed on a large basin of examples, which is not always available with regard to the work of a single artist. In this case, the team has changed the pre-formed architecture developed by Microscoft called Resnet50, coupled with a traditional automatic learning technique called support vector machine.
It has already been shown that the method had a 98% level of precision when it comes to identifying Raphael paintings. Usually he is trained in whole photos, but here, the team also asked him to look at individual faces.
While Madonna, the child and St John all appear to be created from Raphael’s hand, this is not the case with St Joseph. Researchers note that in previous debates During the authenticity of painting, St Joseph’s face is considered less well done than the others in the frame.
“When we tested the Della rosa Overall, the results were not conclusive, ” said Ugail.
“So we then tested the individual parts and although the rest of the image was confirmed as Raphael, Joseph’s face appeared because he is probably not Raphaël.”
Giulio Romano, one of Raphael’s students, was perhaps responsible for the fourth face, but it is by no means certain. This is another example of modern technology revealing the secrets of conventional paintings – this time with AI.
THE Madonna della Rosa Was painted on canvas in the years 1518 to 1520, according to experts. It was in the mid-1800s that art critics began to suspect that Raphael might not have painted all works of art.
Now, these suspicions have almost certainly proved to be correct, although the research team behind the study wishes to emphasize that this AI will help art experts in the future, rather than replacing them.
“This is not a case of AI taking the jobs of people”, ” said Ugail. “The authentication process of a work of art involves looking at many aspects, its origin, pigments, the state of the work, etc.
“However, this type of software can be used as a single tool to help in the process.”
Research was published in Heritage science.
A previous version of this article was published in December 2023.
