Artigos

RECONSTRUCTING THE MAN OF THE SHROUD: A MULTI-YEAR DIGITAL AND 3D ARTISTIC PROJECT, Otangelo Grasso

RECONSTRUINDO O HOMEM DO SUDÁRIO: UM PROJETO ARTÍSTICO DIGITAL E 3D DE VÁRIOS ANOS

This paper documents a personal, multi-year attempt (2022–2025) to reconstruct how the man depicted on the Shroud of Turin might have looked in life. The work began with 2D experiments using freely available image-editing apps and gradually expanded into an AI-assisted workflow, culminating in photorealistic facial reconstructions, simulated multi-angle views, and a three-dimensional bust suitable for 3D printing. Throughout, the reconstructed face was constrained by (1) the geometry visible on high-resolution Shroud photographs and (2) historical scholarship on first-century Judaean appearance. A key practical device was an overlay technique in Inkscape: the evolving reconstruction was repeatedly superimposed on the cloth image and adjusted by eye so that major facial landmarks remained visually aligned. This qualitative feedback loop kept the artwork tethered to the 2D signal without claiming any numerical precision or scientific validation. AI image generators (ChatGPT with DALL-E, Gemini, and others) supplied varied starting faces but never produced a directly usable result; every output required extensive manual repainting, correction, and re-alignment. To avoid confusion, the paper adopts a strict vocabulary: reconstruction refers to the whole endeavour to imagine the living man of the Shroud within historical constraints, while visualization refers to the images and sculptures that result from that process. The project is presented transparently as an artistically driven, historically informed reconstruction, not as forensic proof or a scientific facial identification.              

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