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The neural network determined that one of the faces in the famous painting by the artist Raphael was not drawn by him.
The face in question belongs to Saint Joseph. It can be seen in the upper left corner of the painting known as the Madonna della Rosa.
Scholars have actually debated for a long time whether the painting is an original by Raphael. A new analysis method based on an artificial intelligence algorithm confirmed the hypothesis that at least some of the strokes were not made by Raphael.
Madonna della Rosa. (Prado National Museum)
Researchers from Great Britain and the United States have developed a custom analysis algorithm based on the works of the famous Italian artist. They taught the computer to recognize his style – strokes, choice of color palette, shadow technique and more. The scientists modified a pre-trained architecture developed by Microscoft - ResNet50, combined with a traditional machine learning technique, Support Vector Machine.
While the Madonna, Child and St. John were identified by the neural network as "made by the hands of Raphael," this was not the case for St. Joseph. Researchers note that in previous debates about the authenticity of the painting, it was his figure that caused the most controversy. Now they managed to reveal the secret of the canvas.
St. Joseph in the Madonna della Rosa. (Prado National Museum)
When they examined the entire picture in its entirety, the findings were mixed. But when the attention of the neural network was focused only on the saint's face, the AI showed that it did not belong to Raphael's brush. Perhaps it was written by Giulio Romano, one of the artist's students. However, this is only a hypothesis.
According to experts, the controversial picture was painted on canvas from 1518 to 1520. It was in the mid-1800s that art critics began to suspect that Raphael might not have painted the entire canvas.
