| Scientists in Italy have reconstructed the famous face of the Italian
poet Dante, more than 700 years after he died and were surprised to
discover Dante’s face looked somewhat different from expectations,
including his famous crooked nose.
One of the findings was that Dante’s nose was crooked as if it had
been broken. There were no plastic surgeons in Renaissance times to do the rhinoplasty, or the nose job as it's called nowadays.
Overall, Dante’s face appeared to be quite common, as if he was a man
from the street.
Earlier artists depictions of the face of one of the greatest
Renaissance poets appeared to be based on psychological views on what
famous Dante should have looked like, rather than his real face. Most
depictions were made after Dante died in 1321 and were inspired by the
ideas of how the icon of the Italian poems should have looked.
The current project however, based their "plastic surgery
reconstruction" on the real measurements of Dante’s skull, noted in
1921 when it was taken from the crypt for studies. Professor Fabio
Frassetto who took the measurements in 1921 secretly made the skull
copy of Dante’s skull. He had to do it behind the authorities’ backs,
as making a copy of the skull was considered a profanation.
The Dante’s jawbone was not found in his crypt however, and thus the
scull had to be completely recreated from scratch.
The total skull reconstruction took place in University of Bologna at
Forli, and was carried out by several engineers.
The further work of Dante’s face reconstruction was carried in Pisa
University, where artists used computer technology, and forensic
techniques to reconstruct face muscles with several materials
including plastic.
The forensic work even predicted the location and shape of the
wrinkles on the Dante’s face. Overall plastic face model had all the
details, including wrinkles, eyes, eyebrows, and even added the red
head covering people used to wear at Renaissance times.
One of the scientists working on Dante’s face reconstruction said that
it was the best they could do and they are satisfied with the results.
He also added that they have put no expression on the face, just its
shape. After all the work was done, the face of Dante looked like the
face of a common man from the street. Which is surprising to many
people, but after all, Dante was only one of us, humans. |
[ Scientists in Italy did a "plastic surgery reconstruction" of the face of the most famous Italian poet Dante, 700 years after his life. ]
