Thanks to AI, it was possible to establish that the painting “Madonna Flaget” was probably created by Raphael, a Renaissance artist known throughout the world.
In 1995, Anthony Ayers of Chicago bought the painting Madonna Flaget for $30,000. He sought to prove that this picture was painted by Raphael Santi, a famous Renaissance artist. Thanks to modern technology and AI, it was possible to establish authorship, according to the Daily Mail.
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Anthony Ayers purchased the painting in 1995 and has since gone to great lengths to prove Raphael’s authorship. Four years ago, he commissioned AI firm Art Recognition to analyze the painting’s paint and wood panels.
The firm “trained” its software using millions of works of art and machine learning algorithms. Thanks to this, it was found that with a probability of 97% “Madonna Flage” belongs to Raphael. For the entire time of using the Art Recognition software package, less than 10% of the company’s clients received a result of over 95%.
In total, Ayers and his friends spent more than $500,000 over the years of research. The man died in 2022, without waiting for the results of the study, but his wife continued to work to establish the authorship of the painting.
Rafael Santi was born in Urbino, Italy in 1483 and studied painting with his father. The artist died in 1520, leaving behind less than 200 works that are now incredibly valuable. The last time his work was sold in 2009: the sketch “Head of the Muse” went for 48 million dollars.
Ayers’ wife says: “Tony just knew it was something special. He couldn’t get her out of his head.”
The development team first taught the AI to distinguish between the real work of Raphael and imitations
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Photo: Art Recognition
The study showed interesting results: the face of Mary and Jesus is 96.57% and 96.24% belong to Raphael
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Photo: Art Recognition
The development team first taught the AI to distinguish between genuine Raphael works and imitations. After that, they processed the picture, analyzing its 16 parts separately and the canvas itself as a whole.
The study showed interesting results: the faces of Mary and Jesus are 96.57% and 96.24% Raphael. However, part of the painting was painted by someone else and the researchers believe that the artist worked together with another, unknown colleague.
Dr. Karina Popovichi, Founder of Art Recognition, said: “Through artificial intelligence, we offer clients the objectivity and accessibility that has been lacking in art appraisal for many years. Art history, provenance, chemical analysis and other methods are critical to fully understanding a work of art. , but attribution decisions should not rely solely on the subjective eye of a human expert.”
Dr. Larry Silver, Farkgar Professor Emeritus of Art History at the University of Pennsylvania, also examined the canvas after analyzing the AI. In his opinion, it comes from the workshop of Raphael, and a significant part of the work belongs to the artist himself.
The expertise of Art Analysis and Research, which studied pigment and origin, reinforced Silver’s opinion.
“Technical and art historical analyzes are consistent and suggest that the basis of this picture, most likely created by Raphael, with obvious involvement in the work of a secondary hand,” summed up Dr. Silver.
Previously, Focus talked about a Kandinsky painting stolen by the Nazis, which was returned to its rightful owners.
