The digital model created from a plaster cast of the skull of a person buried in the Roman temple was compared to the self-portraits of the Renaissance artist.
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Scientists from the Tor Vergata University in Rome (Italy) have managed to reconstruct the face of a person buried in the Pantheon of the Italian capital, thus solving doubts about whether these remains really belonged to Rafael Sanzio, the iconic painter and architect of the Renaissance died in 1520 at 37 years of age, informs the ANSA agency.
He skeleton was unearthed in 1833 and studied by the anatomist Antonio Trasmondo. However, until now there was no certainty that the remains of the Pantheon were those of Raphael, Explain the University page. From the moment of its unearthing it was saved a plaster cast, created from the person’s skull, and used by modern researchers to reconstruct their face in 3D.
After comparing the model with self-portraits of the artist, the scientists concluded that the images correspond to the same person.
“This study provides, for the first time, concrete evidence that the skeleton unearthed in the Pantheon in 1833 belongs to Raphael,” said Olga Rickards, an expert in molecular anthropology and professor at Tor Vergata.
The results of the research will be published in the journal Nature.
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