Imaging Analysis and Digital Restoration of the Holy Face of Manoppello—Part I

Heritage

Matricciani, Emilio¹  Fanti, Giulio²  De Caro, Liberato³ 

[1] Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza L. da Vinci, 32, 20133 Milano, Italy;Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale, Via Gradenigo 6/a, Università di Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy;Istituto di Cristallografia, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (IC-CNR), via Amendola 122/O, 70126 Bari, Italy

关键词: artwork;    optical characterization;    Veil of Manoppello;   

DOI  :  10.3390/heritage1020019

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The Veil of Manoppello is an icon of the face of Christ (Holy Face). Its particular characteristic is being semitransparent. The face is visible on both sides (front–back) and, depending on the lighting and observation conditions, shows some differences in the anatomical details. An analysis of this icon has allowed us to clarify some aspects of the possible physical mechanism underlying its unusual optical behavior. It is a linen fiber fabric consisting of very thin threads with a thickness of about 0.1 mm, separated by distances even double the thickness of the threads, so that about 42% of the Veil is empty space. The fibers constituting the linen threads may have been cemented by an organic substance of chemical composition similar to cellulose, presumably starch, eliminating the air between them. Such a structure causes the optical behavior of the medium to be intermediate between those of a translucent medium (thin cemented linen threads) and a transparent one (empty space between the threads). The problem of digital image restoration in spatial terms has also been tackled, since the Holy Face is deformed due to distortions of the meshes of the Veil, caused by the yielding of the very fine structure of the fabric.

【 授权许可】

CC BY