- A computer found St Joseph’s face in Raphael’s Madonna della Rosa wasn’t painted by him.
- The computer, trained on Raphael’s style, is 98% accurate and checked each face separately.
- This supports old doubts about Raphael’s full role and helps art experts study paintings.
A computer program found something interesting in a famous painting by Raphael called the Madonna della Rosa.
It says the face of St Joseph in the painting was probably not painted by Raphael. This news adds to an old question about who really painted this artwork.
Raphael’s Painting Studied Closely
A team from the UK and US used a computer to look at the Madonna della Rosa, which Raphael made between 1518 and 1520. They taught the computer to know Raphael’s painting style by showing it his other works.
The computer looked at things like brush marks and colors. It’s usually right 98% of the time when checking Raphael’s paintings. When they tested the whole painting, it wasn’t clear who painted it. But when they checked each face, the computer said the Madonna, Child, and St John were painted by Raphael.
St Joseph’s face, though, looked like it was done by someone else, maybe Raphael’s student, Giulio Romano. People have thought for a long time that St Joseph’s face doesn’t look as good as the others.
Computer Helps Art Experts
This finding doesn’t mean the painting isn’t special, but it suggests someone helped Raphael with it. Since the 1800s, experts have wondered if Raphael painted every part of the Madonna della Rosa.
The computer, made with a program from Microsoft and another learning tool, gives a new way to check this. Researcher Hassan Ugail from the University of Bradford said the computer won’t take jobs from art experts.
It’s just one way to help them. To know if a painting is real, experts look at its history and materials too. This discovery shows how computers can help us learn more about old paintings like Raphael’s and understand how they were made.
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