The Turin cover, which claims to be Jesus’ original burial cover, could not be created in the three-dimensional human body, new research finds. Graphics experts say the image is much more likely to be a trace of a low-reliable sculpture.
In a study published on Monday (July 28), Cicero Moraes, a Brazilian 3D digital designer who specializes in historical facial reconstruction, compared the way in which the human body is covered with fabric drapes and one low-relief sculpture using modeling software.
“The image on the shroud of Turin is more consistent with the low relief matrix,” Moraz told Live Science via email. “Such matrices are made of wood, stone or metal and could have been pigmented (or even heated) only in the contact area, producing the observed patterns,” he said.
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The shroud was first recorded in the late 14th century, and a debate quickly began as to whether it was a genuine relic from Jesus’ crucifixion and death. Carbon dating analysis conducted in 1989 led to the creation of shrouds from a range AD of 1260 to 1390, solidifying their interpretation as a medieval artifact.
Previous art history analysis found that low portrayals of religious figures, such as carved gravestones, were widely used in Europe’s medieval history history.
To investigate how the Turin shroud was created, Moraes created and analyzed two digital models. The first model represents a three-dimensional human body, while the second model was a low-relief representation of the human body.
Using a 3D simulation tool, Moraes uses fabrics that are essentially draped over two different body models. When he compared the virtual fabric to a 1931 shroud photo, Moraes discovered that the fabric on the low-relief model matched the photographs almost exactly.
Related: Is it a fake? DNA testing deepens the mystery of the Turin shroud
In simulations with three-dimensional bodies, Moraes wrote in his research that the fabric deformed around the body volume, resulting in swollen, distorted images. He writes that this distortion is sometimes called the “Agamemnon mask effect” after the unnaturally wide golden death mask found in Mycenae’s tomb in Greece.
Moraes showed in the video how the Agamemnon Mask effect works by applying faces and pressing paper towels. The resulting image is much wider than the front view of his face due to the distortion caused by engraving the 3D object on the 2D fabric.
However, low relief engravings do not deform the image and look like a copy similar to the Turin shroud, and Moraes is because it only shows areas of potential direct contact without actual volume or depth.
Rather than suppose that the Turin shroud is the result of covering the fabric on the human body, Moraz prefers the explanation that it was created within the context of a funeral, making it a “masterpiece of Christian art.” However, Morauz did not investigate any methods or materials that may have been used to make the shroud.
“There is a remote possibility that it is a trace of the human body in three dimensions,” Moraz wrote, “it is plausible to think that a well-knowledged artist or sculptor may have created such works through painting or low relief.”
One expert believes Moraz is right, but his research is not particularly groundbreaking.
“For at least four centuries, I knew that body images on shrouds were comparable to orthogonal projections on planes. Airplanes could not be created by contact with three-dimensional bodies,” writes Andrea Nicolotti, professor of Christian History at the University of Turino, in Skeptic.
“Moraz certainly created some beautiful images with the help of software,” Nicolotti writes.
Moraes is accessible and replicable to his methods, suggesting that by combining science, art and technology, he “emphasizes the possibilities of digital technology to address or unravel historical mysteries.”
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