The picture of Raphael was calculated using face recognition technology

However, the authorship of the mysterious Madonna is still in doubt.

Experts have been arguing about the authorship of the painting, known as “Tondo de Brecy”, for half a century. In 2004, Professor Howell Edwards of the University of Bradford conducted a technological analysis and found lead oxide and vegetable-based adhesives in the composition of paints, which were used by Renaissance painters. The researcher suggested that this is a painting by Raphael. Now, researchers from the same British University of Bradford, as well as the University of Nottingham, ran the image of the Madonna and Child through a facial recognition program.

The neural network compared the Tondo de Brecy pixel by pixel with Raphael’s masterpiece The Sistine Madonna, and found a high percentage of coincidence. Can this be considered proof of the authorship of the great master, understood “MK”.

This mysterious picture, so similar to the “Sistine Madonna”, was kept for several generations in the family of a certain resident of Wales. Until, in 1981, it was acquired by Cheshire businessman and collector of old master art, George Lester Winward. A couple of years before his death, in 1995, he created the Tondo de Brecy Foundation, named after his French ancestors. Hence the name of the painting attributed to the brush of Raphael. Active scientific research of the canvas began just then.

It was originally thought to be a copy of Raphael’s Victorian-era masterpiece. However, professor of molecular spectroscopy at the University of Bradford, scientific adviser to the de Brecy Foundation for the evaluation of works of art, Howell Edwards, suggested that the canvas could belong to the brush of Raphael Santi himself, and even be the prototype of his Sistine Madonna. Could the picture have been painted before 1512, when the master began to work on a fresco for the church in Piacenza commissioned by Pope Julius II? A study of the composition of materials and paints, announced in September 2004, confirmed that the work was probably painted before 1700. But that study did not give an unambiguous answer to the question about the authorship of Raphael.

It is curious that at the same time, in 2004, just after the publication of the study, a work from a private collection was put up for online auction for over £1 million. However, the results of the auction remained a mystery – there was no news about the sale of the work in the media.

Now specialists from the University of Nottingham have joined the study of the painting. Exposing the picture to the study using a face recognition system is just their idea. According to Professor Christopher Brooke, Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham, an expert in digital image analysis and co-author of the research paper, “a direct comparison of the faces (Madonna from the Tondo de Brecy painting and the Sistine Madonna) gives a match of 97% – very high statistical probability that works of art are created by the same authors.” A comparison of the baby in both works showed a similarity of 86 percent. According to the researchers who used a neural network to establish the artist’s authorship, a similarity above 75 percent is already considered identical. But does this mean that the author of the canvas is Raphael? Is not a fact. Perhaps this is just a successful and fairly accurate copy created by one of the followers or students in the footsteps of the eminent master.

The human factor is also confusing in this lively story about modern technologies. The fact is that all the specialists involved, apparently, are financed by the aforementioned fund, and does this mean that the study was originally sent to prove the necessary version, because the painting by Raphael and a successful imitation are valued in the art market at completely different amounts?