S. Catherine of Genua FFR: technical report published

Hello everybody,

this summer we are working very hard on some important tasks (an archaeological excavation on the UNESCO site of S. Maria in Valle in Cividale del Firuli and a cultural project with 3D scanning for the National Archaeological Museum MaRTA of Taranto), so I have very few time to write post on ATOR. BTW I do not want to give up, since I think ATOR has been (still is?) a good resource for Free and Open Archaeology on the web. For this reason I will try to keep it up to date with short post, as long as I can.

This post regards the  publication of the technical report of an old (2019) project of ours: the archaeological Forensic Facial Reconstruction of S. Catherine of Genua. I already wrote about this project, which, in short, presented some interesting aspects: the use of OrtogOnBlender for 3D scanning, some reverse engineeing techniques and the free publication of the technical report.

In this post I want to underline this last point. In fact, the free disclosure of this document, with open licenses and in a digital form, reached a wider public (not only among researchers, but also among normal people), so that the Museo dei Cappuccini di Genova decided to print a small  brochure, basing on the technical report, enriched with some contributions of other authors. I think this a good example of free disclosure of scientific and cultural data through the digital publication of the so-called gray literature (technical reports, archaeological documentations and so on) which is widely produced by professionals who work in the field of Cultural Heritage, but it is very rarely disclose.

I will try to translate in English this document as soon as I can. Here below you can see the printed version.

The printed version of the technical report about S. Catherine's FFR project.

Have a nice day!

Faces 3D Single View Reconstruction

Hello everybody,

as you probably know, if you are a regular reader of ATOR, we worked a lot, in the past, on the topic of human faces, getting involved in aFFR projects and organizing exhibitions. 

Archaeological Foresnic Facial Reconstructions (aFFR) was the technique we used most, working with the protocol we developed through the years, thanks to our specialist Cicero Moraes. For instance, we used this methodology for St. Anthony of Padua (CARRARA et al. 2014), St. Catherine of Genua (BEZZI et al. 2019), for the father of pathological anathomy Giovanni Battista Morgagni (ZANATTA et al. 2018), for the medieval poet Petrarch (CARRARA and BEZZI 2018), for the mesolithic man of Mondeval, and for the Ptolemaic mummy of the first priest of Toth in Helipolis (CARRARA and SCATTOLIN 2018). Despite this, aFFR is not the only techniques we used in this field: between 2012 and 2013 we developed a new paleoartistic methodology in order to reconstruct the faces of our ancestors. We called this new methodology "Coherent Anatomical Deformation" (BEZZI 2016) and it is based on a x-ray tomography of a Pan troglodytes (Chimpanzee), adapted to the cranium of different hominess’s. Rarely we used also a third technique: an Iconographic Facial Reconstruction, based on a comparison of historical images of a subject. This is the case, for instance, of the Cardinal Bernardo Clesio (NEBL 2018), whose face was reconstructed on ancient paintings and sculptures, after analysing the common features all the portraits.  

Today I will consider this third techniques, speaking about a software I fond yesterday. This software is pretty recent (2017) and, unfortunately, we did not know it when we were working on the exhibition "Imago animi" (BEZZI et al. 2018), because it would have been useful for the facial reconstruction of Bernardo Clesio. This program is referenced as "Large Pose 3D Face Reconstruction from a Single Image via Direct Volumetric CNN Regression", which is also the title of the related article (JACKSON et al. 2017). Of course the software is Open Source and here you can find the code.

Yesterday I played around with it and here below are some results. I started with some test concerning the new exhibition we are working in these days, about the history of my hometown: Cles. Our task for the exhibition is to prepare the archaeological session, so I started trying to automatically reconstruct the face of Luigi Campi, a famous archaeologist born in Cles. To do it I used an historical picture and here below is the result.

Luigi Campi: on the left the original picture, on the right the reconstructed face in 3D.

After this first positive test I wanted to try if the software was able to work also with other kind of historical iconographic sources, so I tried to find a good quality paint of someone related with Cles and finally I found the  portrait of Giuseppina Cles, painted by Giovanni Battista Lampi the Elder around 1780/1781. Also this image gave me positive results.

The reconstruction of Giuseppina Cles from an ancient paint

At this point I wanted to know if the software was also able to work with less realistic images, so I tried to reconstruct the face of the Christ Panthocrator of an ancient fresco in the church of St. Vigilio in Pez and here below is the result.

3D facial reconstruciotn of the Christ Panthocrator fo S. Vigilio in Pez

Befor to stop playing with this very interesting software, I wanted to do some more test with a couple of iconic images, so I tried out the portrait of the Boy Eutyches (from Fayum...

3D of Boy Eutyches

 ... and the Monna Lisa.

After all these test, my opinion about the software is that this tool can be very useful for IFR (Iconographic Facial Reconstruction), in order to get fast 3D model of faces from different historical source to automatize the comparison stage between the different portrait and find the common features. This second stage could be done with a face recognition software, able to compare 3D models.

I hope this post will be useful. Have a nice day!

Bibliografy

Bezzi L. (2016). "FACCE. I molti volti della storia umana".

Bezzi L., Bezzi A., Moraes C. (2019). "Ricostruzione Facciale Forense di S. Caterina Fieschi Adorno".

Bezzi L., Carrara N, Nebl M. (2018). "Imago animi. Volti dal passato".

Carrara N., Bezzi L. (2018). "Lo strano caso del cranio di Francesco Petrarca".

Carrara N., Bezzi L., Moraes C. (2014). "Il volto del Santo. La ricostruzione Facciale Forense di Sant'Antonio di Padova".

Carrara N., Scattolin G. (2018). "La mummia del primo sacerdote di Thot" 

Jackson A. S.,  Bulat A., Argyriou V.,  Tzimiropoulos G. (2017). "Large Pose 3D Face Reconstruction from a Single Image via Direct Volumetric CNN Regression".

Nebl M. (2018). "Il volto di Bernardo Cles".

Zanatta A., Bezzi L., Carrara N., Moraes C., Thiene G., Zampieri F. (2018). "New technique in facial reconstruction: the case of Giovanni Battista Morgagni".

Forensic Facial Reconstruciotn of St. Catherine of Genua (technical report)

Hi all,

this year we worked on several Forensic Facial Reconstruction (FFR) with our expert Cicero Moraes. One of these projects regards St. Catherine of Genua, whos mortal remains are preserved in the church of the "Santissima Annunziata di Portoria", in Genua, and are considered by the Roman Catholic Church, among the so-called "incorrupted bodies".

The FFR project has been very interesting, since it needed some extraordinary procedures, due to three factors: the exceptional conditions of preservation of the body, the particular structure of the sarcophagus and the history of the different necroscopic reconnaissances of the relics of the Saint.

In order to perform the final FFR, we had to adapt our protocol to this particular situation. The solution came from a 3D model produced with SfM-MVS techniques, without opening the sarcophagus, and from some reverse engineering techniques related with the "Coherent Anatomical Deformation", developed in 2014.

Thanks to the kindness of padre Vittorio Casalino, we can now share not only the final result of our study (image below), but also the scientific report (by now, unfortunately, only in Italian), which you can read on ResearchGate, Academia or simply on the Arc-Team Digital Archive.

The final model of St. Catherine of Genua developed by Arc-Team (FFR by Cicero Moraes, 3D data acquisition by Alessandro Bezzi, historical research by Luca Bezzi)

I will try to translate the text in English ASAP (any help is greatly appreciated), but in the meantime I hope this version will be useful, also to go on with the scientific discussion about FFR (which is pretty animated in the last year).

Have a nice day!

Francesco Petrarca, the mocap experiment in Blender

This post is related with the Wikipedia editathon we are organizing for the open source exhibition "Imago Animi", a project derived from the previous experience of "Facce. I molti volti della storia umana".

This time I will write about the experiment in facial MoCap we performed with the 3D model of the FFR (Forensic Facial Reconstruction) of Francesco Petrarca. The poet was indeed one of the five historical personalities connected with the city of Padua, who were the protagonist of a specific session within the exhibition "Facce". Moreover Petrarch is also present in "Imago Animi", due to the fact that its mortal remains were studied by the scientist Giovanni Canestrini, born in Revò, a town very close to Cles (Trentino - Italy), where the exhibition is currently open to visitors.

The image below (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License) is the result of the Forensic facial Reconstruction of Francesco Petrarca, performed starting from the cast of the skull, found in 2005 in the "fondo Canestrini" at the University of Padua.

The FFR portrait of Francesco Petrarca

This cast is the only data available for the FFR, because, as the 2013 recognition on the mortal remains revealed, the skeleton of Petrarch is currently buried with a female skull, dated (with the C14 techniques) between 1134 and 1280 (almost one century before the life of the poet). The aDNA analysis performed in 2004 by Prof. David Caramelli (University of Florence) confirmed this thesis (the skeleton had a male DNA, while the skull a female DNA) [1].

In 2015 Arc-Team has been commissioned to perform the Forensic Facial reconstruction of Petrarca and other historical personalities, in order to prepare the open exhibition "Facce". The work started with the 3D documentation of the cast of the "fondo Canestrini", done (with SfM techiques) by Luca Bezzi (Arc-Team). The cast was previously validated by Dott. Nicola Carrara (of the Anthropological Museum of the Univesrity of Padua), with osteometric measurements based on the drawing published by Giovanni Canestrini on his study about the mortal remains of the poet [2]. Cicero Moraes, the forensic specialist of Arc-Team, later performed the FFR in Blender, with the techniques developed during the years starting from this first post in ATOR: Forensic Facial Reconstruction with Free Software.

Once achieved the final 3D model, we decided to test Blender potentialities in facial MoCap, starting from previous experiences. In this case the idea was a short video in which Francesco Petrarca would have "reciting" one of its poetry and, in particular, the proemial sonnet of the Canzioniere ("Voi ch'ascoltate in rime sparse il sono...").

The video below shows the final result...

... while this video shows the "making of".

For the two open exibitions ("Facce" and "Imago Animi") has been chosen a combination of the previous videos, in order to show also the technique of facial MoCap. The final product, you can see here below, has been performed by Cicero Moraes (Arc-Team) using the facial MoCap tools of Blender, starting from the original video registered by Luca Bezzi (Arc-Team), with the technical help of Dott.ssa Emma Varotto and Dott. Nicola Carrara (Anthropological Museum of the Univesrity of Padua), which recorded the excellent performance of the actor Antonello Pagotto.

This post wants to be also a tribute to all the people involved in the project, for their professionalism and kindness!
Have a nice day!

Bibliography

[1] N. Carrara, L. Bezzi, Lo strano caso del cranio di Francesco Petrarca, in Imago Animi. Volti dal passato, 2018

[2] G. Canestrini, Le ossa di Francesco Petrarca, 1874

St. Paolina Visintainer. Recovering a lost smile

Thursday 9th June 2016 in Vigolo Vattaro (Trentino - Italy) was held a conference regarding the figure of S. Paolina Visintainer, who was born in this town in 1865, and in general the immigration issue. 

Among the other interesting contributions, a special mention has to be made for the work about Italian immigration in Brazil during the XIX century, presented by Cesar Augusto Prezzi, which focused on the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Caterina. This research illustrated the hard journey Italian and, in general, European migrants had to face to reach the new world, often losing their relatives along the way (in many cases buried at sea), in order to escape poverty and war (a story that sadly remembers the current travel of refugees).

Ship with immigrants in Santos

Our (Arc-Team) contribution to the conference regarded a more particular topic, connected with the person of St. Paolina: her Forensic Facial Reconstruction aimed to recover her smile. Indeed Mother Paolina is remembered as a smiling and good-natured person, but, due to the fact that the only photo we have were taken in sad moments of her life, we have no representation of her more natural expression. From this singular issue, +Cícero Moraes  started to work in order to recover her lost smile, with the help of the artist Mari Bueno and Prof. José Luis Lira.

Here below I uploaded the video of the presentation I gave during the conference, in which are presented the partner of the project, the main work-flow and the final result:

while here is the clip shown in the final part of the slides:

Here below is the final image of the Forensic Facial Reconstruction of S. Paolina Visintainer, performed by Arc-Team's forensic artist Cicero Moraes, who also accomplished also the 3D documentation of the skull with SfM techniques. like always in ATOR, this material is released under CC-BY licenses.

The Forensic Facial reconstruction of S. Paolina Visintainer (with the reconstructed smiling expression)

Have a nice day!

St. Anthony's day

June, in Padua, is the "mese antoniano" (The month dedicated to St. Anthony) and the day 13 June is the day in which the Saint was born and that the Catholic Church chosed to celebrate him.

Exactly around this period, a couple of years ago (10 June 2014), we presented in Padua the Forensic Facial Reconstruction of the Saint [1], which was performed during the preparation of the open source exhibition "Facce. I molti volti della storia umana" ("Faces. The many aspects of human history") [2].

Today, with a big delay (sorry, too few time...) I'll go on sharing, with open source licenses, the material we produced for the exhibition and, considering the recurrence (13 June), I'll upload some media regarding the Forensic Facial Reconstruction (FFR) of St. Anthony.

First of all, here is the image of the final model, which is already available on Wikimedia Commons. 

FFR of St. Anthony (final model)

The credit for this image are (in order of work-flow): Luca Bezzi (Arc-Team) and Nicola Carrara (Museum of Anthropology of the University of Padua) for the 3D scanning of the cranial cast of the Saint; Cicero Moraes (Arc-Team) for the main work of digital Forensic Facial Reconstruction; Padre Luciano Bertazzo (Center for St. Anthoni Studies) for the historical validation of the final model. Moreover the project relies on on the previous work of the artist Roberto Cremesini, who produced in 1985 the bronze cast of the skull and the jaw of St. Anthony, used for the digital reconstruction (2014) and on the research directed by Prof. Vito Teribile Wiel Marin, who directed the anthropological study of the skeletal remains in 1981 (with particular attention to the work of Prof. Gino Fornaciari, Francesco Mallegni and Giorgio Ragagnini).

Then I report here the complete presentation we did during the "Giugno Antoniano", as until now in ATOR we just published the second half of the slides (by Cicero Moraes) and never the first one (regarding the digital scanning of the bronze cast done by Roberto Cremesini).

Here below is the presentation, which can be view interactively directly online:

 

Since for some people (due to the default browser) there could be some minor visualization erros, I also recorded a vdeo and uploaded it on our YouTube channel:

Have a nice day!

PS

Since the overall presentation is pretty long, I upload separately here the 3 videos embedded in the slides:

1) The FFR of Alberto da Trento

2) The Forensic Facial Reconstruction process

3) The Forensic Facial Reconstruction of St. Anthony

[1]

ATOR: 1, 2, 3

[2]

AOTR: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Bibliography

[1] 

Il Volto del Santo. La ricostruzione facciale forense di Sant'Antonio di Padova (ResearchGate, Academia)

[2] 

“FACCE. I molti volti della storia umana”: progettare una mostra Open Source basata sulla Computer Vision (ResearchGate, Academia); 

"Facce. I molti volti della storia umana" Una mostra Open Source (ResearchGate, Academia);

"Facce. I molti volti della storia umana". Una mostra che racconta (ResearchGate, Academia)

Forensic Facial Reconstruction, the state of the art

As many of you know last week a team of the University of Leicester have publicly revealed to have discovered, in all likelihood, the tomb of Richard III. The results seem comforted by the analysis of mitochondrial DNA, while the discrepancy on the Y chromosome could be explained by a false paternity. The study was completed with a forensic facial reconstruction of the king, performed by the experts of the University of Dundee, led by Caroline Wilkinson, Professor of Craniofacial Identification.

Given the opportunity, I decided to publish here our state of the art on this particular field (forensic facial reconstruction applied to archeology), publishing the presentation that I gave during the study day in honor of Prof. Franco Ugo Rollo (Ascoli Piceno, November 26 2014).

You can see the presentation here below (better visualized at this link)...
 

... and here is a brief explanation of each slide:

SLIDE 1

A remember of Franco Ugo Rollo, professor at the Camerino University. It was not my fortune to know personally Prof. Rollo, but his name is surely well known also in my discipline (archeology).

SLIDE 2

"Digital faces: new technologies for the forensic facial reconstruction of the historical figures".
The presentation intend to be an overview of the digital methodologies of FFR with FLOSS, developed in the last two years on the blog ATOR with a spontaneous contribution of different authors.

SLIDE 3

The traditional work-flow involves several operations: 3D scanning the skull, preparing a replica, performing the anthropological analyses, placing the tissue depth markers, reconstructing the profile, modeling the muscles and skin, calibrating the model with the available sources and dressing it.

SLIDE 4

The same operations are necessary for the digital work-flow. Our main work has been to turn the traditional process into a digital one, using only FLOSS.

SLIDE 5

There are different technology to obtain a 3D digital copy of the original skull. The main two we are using are: SfM - IBM and X-ray CT.

SLIDE 6

IN 2009 Arc-Team perform the first test in applying SfM - IBM with FLOSS to Cultural Heritage, during its participation at the TOPOI excelent cluster of Berlin.

SLIDE 7

The test developed in a collaboration with the French researcher +Pierre Moulon (Université Paris - Est and Mikros Image; actually at Acute3D) to integrate SfM - IBM software in ArcheOS 4 (codename Caersar)

SLIDE 8

The first test (TOPOI Löwe) gave positive results

SLIDE 9

The process is mainly based on different photos with different orientations, computing the displacement of common points between images

SLIDE 10

To complete the 3D documentation of an object, the next step is the so-called mesh-editing, which can be performed in the software MeshLab (developed by the Visual Computing Lab at the ISTI - CNR of Pisa, Italy)

SLIDE 11

In order to validate the digital method of FFR, some unconventional procedures (derived from the hacker culture) have been adopted. With reverse engineering techniques, based on SfM, it has been possible to digitally replicate the process of past FFR projects and to compare the results.

SLIDE 12

The anthropological validation has been performed comparing the result of 3D models obtained with SfM - IBM and the relative results coming form 3D scan (the observed distortion remained in the range of 1 mm).

SLIDE 13

In several projects it is possible to work with DICOM data. In these cases the anthropological analysis is more accurate. (3D VS Voxel)

SLIDE 14

The main software we used for DICOM data is InVesalius, mainly developed at the Renato Archer Information of Technology Center, an institute of the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology.

SLIDE 15

"X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT) is a technology that uses computer-processed X-rays to produce tomographic images (virtual 'slices') of specific areas of the scanned object, allowing the user to see inside without cutting." (Wikipedia)

SLIDE 16

Also in this case, the process was validated with unconventional procedures derived from hacker culture. With reverse engineering of CT videos it has been possible to rebuild DICOM data and the 3D model of different skulls, replicating FFR projects and comparing the results.

SLIDE 17

It is necessary to check and validate the protocol with a continuous methodological comparisonwith all the available resources. For this reason, we tried also the FFR of Henry the IV, a project in which Prof. Rollo was involved, rejecting (with other scholars) the attribution of the mummified head to the French king. Our test in this case is just an experiment, starting from low quality data, but it is a good example to show some benefits of digital FFR, like the possibility to quickly modify the reconstructed face (e.g. closing the mouth in order to perform superimposition with the death mask), an operation not so simple with tangible models.

SLIDE 18

Once obtained the 3D model, digital anthropological analyses do not differ from traditional ones.

SLIDE 19

In some cases, a virtual restoration of the model is necessary. The solution comes from symmetrical and boolean operations of 3D modeling software (Blender).

SLIDE 20

The whole process of 3D modeling is actually performed in the software Blender.

SLIDE 21

The first operation is to fix the 3D skull on the Frankfurt plane, which replicates the head position of a standing human figure.

SLIDE 22

Than tissue depth markers are placed. The software keeps automatically the correct normal of each marker.

SLIDE 23

In our works, for depth tissue markers, we use the tables of Degreef et alii (2006)

SLIDE 24

A second step is the profile reconstruction.

SLIDE 25

For nose shape we refer to G. Lebedinskaya method.

SLIDE 26

The validation of the method came mainly from the comparison between FFR models and the facial DICOM data of living people, a simple simple with digital techniques, using the software CloudCompaer. All this experiment were conducted ans blind test (the artist did not know the identity and the fisionomy of the people).

SLIDE 27

According to the blind test, main deviations were detected on the cheeks.

SLIDE 28

Like other 3D operations, muscles modeling has been performed in Blender.

SLIDE 29

The technique hes been continuously rationalized and optimize. For instance, once the main muscles are modeled with metaballs in Blender, the result can be reused in successive reconstructions through an anatomical deformation.

SLIDE 30

It is possible to reach more realistic results through specific modeling tools,
like the "sculpt mode" in Blender.

SLIDE 31

Also skin modeling is an operation to be performed in Blender

SLIDE 32

Again the technique has been optimized: In order to simplify and speed up the process, a neutral facial model has been  created.

SLIDE 33

The neutral model can be anatomically deformed on different skulls to meet gender and age dimorphism.

SLIDE 34

At the same time, the neutral model can be deformed to meet the anatomical criteria which determine the individual dimorphism.

SLIDE 35

After the reconstruction process, two main models are defined:  one with hair and one hairless.

SLIDE 36

Thanks to the latest developments of the software MakeHuman it is now possible to further simplify and speed up the technique. Our actual research is following this direction.

SLIDE 37

The first tests carried out in 2014 have yielded positive results, thanks to the new feature which loads base raster images. The software is also perfectly compatible with Blender.

SLIDE 38

A further development of the protocol will allow to obtain high quality forensic facial reconstructions, in less time, without the need to master the techniques of 3D modeling.

SLIDE 39

At the end of the FFR process, the final model is calibrated with historical, archaeological and medical sources.

SLIDE 40

In case of historical reconstructions, the model appearance (hairstyle and clothing) is calibrated depending on era and culture, while the physical characteristics (color of hair and eyes) are set basing on the ancestry.

SLIDE 41

The 3D printing technologies allow the materialization of the model with different levels of detail.

SLIDE 42

A case study: the forensic facial reconstruction of St. Anthony of Padua 

SLIDE 43

The 3D scan was carried out on the bronze cast performed by R. Cremesini in 1981.

SLIDE 44

The cast done by R. Cremesini is very important, because it derives from the temporary anatomical reconnection of the skull and the jaw, which were separated since the first survey of the tomb (1263). 

SLIDE 45 

3D scan has been performed with the SfM - IBM software of the archaeological GNU/Linux distribution ArcheOS.

SLIDE 46

The final model has been presented Tuesday, June 10 at the event "Scoprendo il volto di Antonio" at the Centro Culturale S. Gaetano in PAdua (Italy)  

SLIDE 47 - 50

Digital FFR allows to further define the details of the model to reach a more realistic result.

SLIDE 51

Thanks to the collaboration with the Centro de Tecnologia da Informação Renato Archer - CTI (Ministério da Ciência and Technology do Brasil) the model was printed in 3D.

SLIDE 52

One of the materialized models was repainted by the Brazilian Mari Bueno,
specialized in religious art.

SLIDE 53

Thank you for your attention!


 

A study day in honor of Prof. Franco Ugo Rollo

Next week, on November 26, will be held a study day in honor of Prof. Franco Ugo Rollo, the famous anthropologist at the University of Camerino who sadly left us this year.

I have been invited to participate in the event, which will take place in Ascoli Piceno and Monsampolo del Tronto, where the Professor analyzed the mummy which are now exposed in the Museum of the Crypt of the S. Mary Church.

During the first session in Ascoli (in the morning) Prof. Gino Fornaciari (University of Pisa) will give a presentation titled "Fra principi e mummie: le origini della paleopatologia moderna" (en: "Between princes and mummies: the origin of modern palaeopathology". Later, Marco Samadelli, of EURAC, will speak about "Life Traces. Alla ricerca della vita nel microcosmo: batteri psicrofili e psicrotolleranti nella mummia dei ghiacci" (en: "Life Traces. Searching the life into the microcosm: psychrophilic  and psicrotollerant bacteria in the ice mummy"). Before the lunch break I will talk about "Volti in byte: le tecnologie digitali per la ricostruzione dei volti del passato" (en "Faces in bytes: new digital technologies for the forensic facial reconstruction of historical figures").

The second session will take place in Monsampolo, with a guided tour in the Museum of the St. Mary's crypt.

The event is organized by the University of Camerino (Scuola di Bioscienze e Medicina Veterinaria; Scuola di Scienze e Tecnologie, Corso di Laurea in Tecnologie e diagnostica per la conservazione e il restauro) and the municipalities of Ascoli Piceno and Monsampolo del Tronto. 

IMHO the study day promises to be interesting and it is worth to attend for people living in the nearby. For more information I publish here the official poster:

The poster of the event

Anthropology of religion:a forensic reconstruction. The face of St. Anthony of Padua

"(...) There are mystically in our faces certain characters which carry in them the motto of our souls (...)" 

Sir Thomas Browne

On August 31, 2014 in Brusciano took place the annual "Festa dei Gigli" (lilies party). The protagonist of this celebration, even though we are in Campania, is St. Anthony of Padua. The devotion to this Saint is so strong in the town that the party in his honor is felt by people as more important than the country's patron saint, San Sebastian.

This year's celebration, however, was characterized by an important novelty: one of "Gigli" (Italian for lilies) dedicated to the saint, the "Giglio" of Passo Veloce, led at its peak the effigy of St. Anthony of Padua with its true face.

The "Gigli" are constructions made ​​of poplar, fir and chestnut, in the shape of an obelisk, up to 25 meters and weighing till 50 tons, assembled with nails and rope and decorated with religious scenes. 

The forensic reconstruction of the face of the saint was a team work that has involved, among other institutions, the Museum of Anthropology of the University of Padova (Dr. Nicola Carrara), Arc-Team (Cicero Moraes and Luca Bezzi), the Centro Studi Antoniani (Father Luciano Bertazzo) and Antrocom Onlus (Dr. Moreno Tiziani) and was  presented in Padua during the Antonian June 2014.  

The choice of the devotees of Brusciano is an opportunity of interesting considerations from the point of view of anthropology of religion, which gives us an overview of the relationship that believers have with Italian patron saints. 

The cult of the saints is in fact one of the strongest aspects of religiosity in Italy, being a powerful medium of identity. The Saints are not only representing themselves and their figures are not limited to a religious or hagiographical matter: each saint is primarily a sample of the community which he represents; he is a civic emblem that embodies the character of the city in which he is revered, of the community or the group who elected him as a patron saint and turned him into a "supernatural logo", as well summarized by the anthropologist Marino Niola. He is  a sort of totem, which can inform us about the origin of customs, symbols, characters, and rules of conduct, involving the unique relationship that the saint has with that particular community in that particular area.

It is no coincidence that the day dedicated to the local saint is a festivity day. One day that departs from the others through a series of behaviors which are different from those in use in everyday life: eating differently, dressing differently, following different rhythms given by the holiday.

We have also to consider that, according to popular physiognomy,  there is a correlation between physical features (especially facial), and character traits. The face of St. Anthony, given by the forensic reconstruction of Cicero Moraes, validates the folk imagery of the devotees. In this way the day dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua becomes a ritual representation of the city's tradition, a sacralization of the urban space and an opportunity to rewrite the "identity maps", to rebuild the community in the name of the saint.
Here is how to explain the choice of the believers to use the true face of the saint: the symbolic efficiency of the saint is reinforced by his real look, which embraces the whole community gathered in celebration.

In the video below it is possible to see the "Giglio Passo Veloce" with the statue of St. Athony on his peak (Standard YouTube License by Alessio Italo Jr. d'Alise).

In this image you can see the statue of the saint, done by the sculptor Giacomo D'Alterio and painted by the painter Ilaria Auriemma for the Giglio Passo Veloce of the maker Gerardo Di Palma (photo by Antonio Castaldo).

And here is a panoramic image of the "giglio", done by +Cícero Moraes withe the frame of the video.

Il Volto del Santo (the Face of the Saint)

As part of the celebrations of the "mese antoniano" (the month that the city of Padua dedicates to S. Anthony), on 10 June will be held an evening focused on the historical figure of Fernando Martins de Bulhões (S. Anthony). 

The event will take place in Padua at the auditorium of the Cultural Center Altinate / S. Gaetano and will point the attention to the presentation of the forensic facial reconstruction of the Saint.  
The conference will begin at 20:45.

The "Giugno Antoniano 2014" logo

The invited speakers are:

 +Luca Bezzi, archaeologist at Arc- Team Ltd., was involved in the three-dimensional documentation of the mortal remains of the Saint (the starting point for the facial reconstruction).

 +Cícero Moraes , digital artist at Arc- Team Ltd., has performed the forensic reconstruction, using the most modern protocols.

Father Luciano Bertazzo, director of the Centro Studi Antoniani, one of the leading experts in the figure of the Saint. 

Nicola Carrara, curator of the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Padua and creator of the exhibition "Faces. The many aspects of human history", the event that led to the forensic facial reconstruction of St. Anthony.

During the evening will be shown the 3D documentation techniques applied to skeletal remains, the forensic reconstruction protocols, the relationship between the classical iconography and physiognomy returned by modern technologies and, finally , will be given a preview of the exhibition "Faces. The many aspects of human history, " which will take place in October 2014 (visit the FaceBoook page!).

 

The poster of the event

Here is possible to download the leaflet of the "Giungno Antoniano 2014". The entrance is free, we wait you there!

2016-04-28 Updated

For who is interested, we wrote an article (in Italian) about the Forensic Facial reconstruction of St. Anthony:

"Il volto del Santo. La ricostruzione facciale forense di S. Antonio da Padova" (here in ResearchGate and here in Academia)

“FACCE. I molti volti della storia umana”, an open source exhibition

It's been more than one year since the conclusion of the Taung Project and many things have happened. Today I want to post something related with one of the most important derivations of this project: the exhibition "FACCE. I molti volti della storia umana" (en "Faces. The many aspects of human history"). The event is organized by the Anthropological Museum of the University of Padua, from an idea of Dott. Nicola Carrara, and it is a cooperation between the Museum, the University, Arc-Team and Antrocom NPO (the same actors of the Taung Project). I will not go into details of the exhibition, due to the fact it is still a work in progress being its opening planned for October 2014, but I post the preliminary presentation we did during the European Academic Heritage Day 2013 ("Down the Rabbit hole", backstage of knowledge production).

 As you ague form the title, the main topic of the exhibition is the human face, which, in the words of the French photograper Gisele Freund, is also the "the only part of the body to be exposed naked to the first comer." Actually the thematic sessions planned for the event are six:

1. "Guardiamo in faccia la diversità umana" (en "Let's face human diversity"), which is dedicated to human evolution and will take advantage of the forensic facial reconstructions of the principal actors in the phylogenetic human three, preformed by the Brazilian digital artist +Cícero Moraes.

2. "Una faccia, una razza?" (en "One face, one race?"). This section will show the division of mankind into races proposed by various authors in the 700-800, which will have more deleterious effects in the first decades of the 1900s. Nowadays, thanks especially to human genetic studies, we can say that the division of Homo sapiens into races is just a cultural and social construction, without any sense in biology.

3.  "Una faccia, un destino?" (en "A face, a fate?"), in which the main topic will be physiognomy, analyzed from the artistic aspects of the XVI century till the pseudoscientific approach in the XIX century criminology in connection with phrenology, another famous pseudoscience, well-accepted in the same period.

4. "Con quella faccia un po' così" (quote from the popular Italian song "Genova per Noi" of the singer Paolo Conte), a session in which will be proposed different forensic facial reconstructions of historical personalities connected with the city of Padua.

5. "Ma che faccia fai?" (Italian popular expression). This part of the exhibition will be dedicated to human facial expressions.

6. "Dalla faccia alla maschera: il volto simbolico" (en "From the face to the mask: the symbolic aspect"). The final session will take advantage from the contribute of the Museo Internazionale della Maschera, Amleto e Donato Sartori and will show the symbolic aspect of the face: the mask.

The contribute of Arc-Team to the exhibition, in addition to the forensic facial reconstructions that will be created by our expert (+Cícero Moraes), will cover the touristic fruition of the event through scientific interactive installations mainly based on Computer Vision (from Augmented Reality to Facial Recognition and Motion Capture). In the presentation you can see some of the projected prototype, as well as some sources of inspiration (e.g. the movie "A scanner Darkly") some examples from the software we will use (e.g. Openframeworks). 

As you probably guessed from the title of this post, the main peculiarity of this event will be the fact that it can be considered an "open source exhibition", maybe the first of its kind, due to the fact that all the produced material will be released under the therms of the Creative Commons Attribution, which is a license approved for free cultural works. Moreover open techniques will be used also to collect material for the exhibition itself, with specific crowedsourcing campaigns, while part of the budget will be probably collected wit crowdfunding. I will have time to post more news about these last two topics, by now I just hope that you'll enjoy the presentation below (like always, to navigate just click on the image and use the spacebar to browse the slides).

For a better visualization, click here

Darcy's mysteries

After I reconstructed a face of a skeleton called Joaquim, placed in Medicine History Museum (MUHM),  I was invited to do other job for a skull that belonged to the same donator.

When I traveled to Porto Alegre to talk in a conference (FISL 14), I took the opportunity to know Joaquim, do a TV interview, and see the other skull.

In the first view I didn't see anything different on the structure of the skull. I took it in my hands to a room and I took some photos and make a 3D scanning.

I took pictures from top and bottom to make a complete 3D scanning with PPT-GUI.

When I saw the skull, I imagined that it belonged to a woman. To have more safety I sent the 3D mesh to Dr. Paulo Miamoto, a forensic specialist to make a report about the sex of the individual.

To my surprise, the report was inconclusive. The protocol have a range o 1 to 5. 1 is a lot woman, and 5 is a lot man, the result was 2,4!

We take the opinion of other specialists and a half told that was a woman, a half that was a man.

Because this ambiguity, we starts to call the skull with a Portuguese neutral name: Darcy.

This was one of the misteries, the other appeared during the 3D modeling.

In the video above we have the process of the reconstruction. Apparently it doesn't hane anithyng different with the shape of the face.

When I put the skin, I noted that in the area of the top of the head I had to decrease the volume a lot.

When we see the two mesh side-by-side, Joaquim (an little man at left) and Darcy (at right), we can see a notorious difference at the top of the head.

The skull was submitted to a neurologist to be analyzed.

I don't have any knowledge not even for speculate about the result. We have to wait.

I hope you enjoy.

A big hug and see you in the next!