IS THIS THE TRUE FACE OF BELLINI?

Researchers at the University of Catania in Sicily believe they have revealed the 'true face' of the city's former star resident, 18th century Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini following a joint study at the institution between two in-house research groups: that of Department of Electric, Electronic and Informatic Engineering and the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.

Excerpt from study published in "Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage" vol. 17 e00144
showing the processes of subject verification using a 3D mesh of the wax mask made from an extant mould by Giordano (a) against the portrait by D'Agata (b). (C and D) are an overlay and projection, respectively.

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The study, dubbed "A method for similarity assessment between death masks and portraits through linear projection: the case of Vincenzo Bellini" sought to identify the closest likeness to the composer among a set of 14 known portraits of Bellini (each of them quite different - some vastly - due to both artistic and social conventions at the time of execution and/or the artist's technique), against a wax three-dimensional "death mask" formed by artist Salvo Giordano from a hitherto undiscovered mould presently housed in Catania's Bellini museum. The mask had previously undergone its own round of scientific scrutiny alongside two other known masks of Bellini, and had been designated the most representative of its subject. It was thus used as a reference for a morphometric comparison with the paintings.

Wax death mask of Vincenzo Bellini
by archeomatica_unict
on Sketchfab

Prior to the advent of facial recognition software and the implementation of advanced techniques within the field, identification of known or suspected sitters in portraiture were subject to authentication by 'experts'  - the conclusions of which often incited much unresolved debate among scholars. By utilizing an ad-hoc labelling tool developed by the researchers to aid in their study ("Image Marker Pro," now available for download) the two groups are able to posit a closest possible likeness of Bellini - in the portrait by Angelo D'Agata - a copy of which is housed in the University museum (Museo dei Saperi e delle Mirabilia siciliane). It was then merged with the mask made by Giordano using the software.



Above: the IP Lab research group at Catania University analyze a 3D mesh of a wax mask of Bellini against a portrait of the composer painted by an unknown artist.


The lenghty study, printed in the June 2020 issue of the scientific journal Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (vol. 17) may be read here.

It should be noted that the portrait by D'Agata (b. 1842 - c. 1913) was a near-contemporary likeness, having been executed after the maestro's death (b. 1801 - 1835). The researchers at Catania consider this fact to be of "marginal" relevance to their study due to both the previous lack of positive identification of the sitter and the unknown artwork from which it was based, and its agreeable comparison to the "authenticated" death mask (the results of which provide incontrovertible proof that the subject in the portrait is indeed the same individual from whom the mould was cast).

According to the paper published in the scientific journal, a physical 3D reconstruction of Bellini's face, based on the newly fashioned render is forthcoming. 

Listen below to one of the true queens of coloratura, Edita Gruberová sing an excerpt from the famous "mad scene" of Elvira in I puritani: the cabaletta, "Vien, diletto, è in ciel la luna" (1991, New York). Commissioned for the Théâtre-Italien, I Puritani was the last of Bellini's nine operas and his final work - he died in September 1835 at the age of 33 as a result of amoebic dysentery, just 8 months after the opera's premiere in Paris.


-Rose.

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