Renaissance painter Rapheal's face reconstructed to solve tomb mystery
Rome's Tor Vergata University told international media that they have solved an age-old mystery over the final resting place of Italian painter Raphael.
- Entertainment News
- 2 min read
Rome's Tor Vergata University told international media that they have solved an age-old mystery over the final resting place of Italian painter Raphael by creating a 3D reconstruction of his face. The artist, a child prodigy, and part of a trinity of Renaissance greats along with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Raphael died in 1520 at age of 37. A red rose always graces his tomb in Rome’s former temple Pantheon all-around year. In the 19th century, his body was exhumed and at that time a plaster cast of his skull was made. But experts were in doubt that the remains really belong to the great artist Raphael because excavation also unearthed other partial and full skeletons.
There are various myths regarding the death of the great painter, one of the myth says Raphael had an active sex life and the reason behind his death is stated as syphilis a bacterial infection usually spread by sexual contact, but on the other hand experts believe that he died because of pneumonia, possibly after visiting lovers late on freezing nights. After 500 years of his death, the university team made a 3D reconstruction of his face made up plaster, which found a clear match of artist’s face with portraits by other artists of that period, and as well as with artist’s self-portraits.
Research will continue
According to molecular biologist Mattia Falconi, they have concrete evidence for the first time that the skeleton exhumed in 1833 belongs to great artist Raffaello Sanzio. She also further added that only part of his face that could not be reconstructed this way was the ears, but fortunately, Raphael had long hair that covered his ears. Media reports also state that project to re-exhume the body of the great artist, this year was put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, but if work resumes, the team would be interested in seeing how faithful the artist was to his real self.
(Image Credit-Twitter/Raphael)
Published By : Anmol Bali
Published On: 7 August 2020 at 16:31 IST