NEW YORK, NY.- A previously unknown 16th century panel painting by Raphael and studio, the Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance, has been discovered. Known as the Flaget Madonna, the painting depicts the Madonna and Child with Elizabeth and John the Baptist. The work’s attribution is the result of more than two decades of study, and includes new brushstroke
AI analysis that identifies both the faces of the Madonna and infant Jesus as by the Master’s own hand.
Dr. Larry Silver, Farquhar Professor of Art History emeritus at the
University of Pennsylvania, was the first art historian to examine the painting and propose that it was from the studio of Raphael with significant parts of the work attributed to the artist himself. Further examination by Art Analysis and Research including pigment analysis and provenance review reinforced this attribution. The artwork was most recently examined by Art Recognition, an award-winning AI system for art authentication, and represents the first time this cutting-edge technology was used to identify the presence of a Renaissance master’s own hand in work by his studio.
“The technical and art historical analyses align to suggest that the core of this painting is likely to have been designed by Raphael, with the obvious participation in the work by a lesser, secondary hand,” summarized Dr. Silver.
Brushstroke AI Analysis
As the leading private company offering brushstroke AI authentication, Art Recognition, based in Zurich, works by designing a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) specific to the artist. The brushstroke AI was trained on a high quality dataset containing images of all paintings currently known to have been created by Raphael and a contrast set of fakes, comparables, and contemporaries. The system was then able to clearly identify feature series, such as the artist’s brushstroke as well as variations in color and high-level composition elements.
The AI reviewed 16 individual segments of the Flaget Madonna as well as the painting as a whole. While the analysis showed that the painting was not entirely by Raphael, both the faces of the Madonna and Child were confirmed as 96.57% and 96.24% attribution to Raphael.
“Through brushstroke artificial intelligence, we offer objectivity and accessibility to clients, which has been missing in the field of art evaluation for many years. Art history, provenance, chemical analysis, and other methods are all critical to the full understanding of an artwork, but attribution decisions should not be left solely to the subjective human expert’s eye,” said Dr. Carina Popovici, Founder and CEO of Art Recognition.
“With brushstroke AI making advancements in the art world, it’s exciting to see Art Recognition use this technology to authenticate paintings,” added Hikari Senju, Founder and CEO at Omneky, which utilizes state-of-the-art deep learning to empower businesses to grow. “Growing up, I remember going to art museums with my dad, who is an artist, and him pointing out characteristics of each artwork and what made them significant. With the advent of computer vision, for the first time art and design can be quantified. Never before have we had the power to attribute artwork with the support of AI to confirm artist technique with data. We are in an exciting period in technological design with wide implications of this innovation in a variety of fields.”
Paint & Technical Analysis
Art Analysis & Research also spent four years studying this painting. AA&R was founded by Dr. Nicholas Eastaugh to provide scientific and technical expertise to the fine art community. He also co-founded the Pigmentum Project, an interdisciplinary research group on historical pigments and other artists’ materials that led to the publication of The Pigment Compendium in 2004, which quickly became a standard reference text in the field.
The firm combined rigorous scientific analysis of paintings with contextual historical research to develop unparalleled insight into artworks. Reviewing the Flaget Madonna, they examined the work in three categories:
● Material and technical study, its structure and composition, as well as consideration of a range of comparison works and additional technical examinations of those works
● Collation of art historical information relating to potential attribution in support of the material study
● Provenance of the painting, including review of known documents and research in primary archives for additional evidence
AA&R objectively evaluated the work through a methodology called analysis of competing hypotheses. They systematically created a social network of artists from 15th and 16th century Florence, Italy to establish all potential candidates. They then identified scientifically measurable artistic practices, such as the use of key pigments, presence of underdrawings, and types of bindings or other materials used, to create a substantial data set for each candidate. This research supported the work’s authorship by the studio of Raphael. AA&R's report confirmed the use of orpiment, a pigment used by a very small group of Italian Renaissance artists including Rapahel, Leonardo and Michelangelo.
Provenance
Tony Ayers discovered the work now called the Flaget Madonna in a Cotswold antiques shop in 1995. The work was unattributed at the time of purchase, but the UK dealer had acquired the painting from an American antiques dealer based in Kentucky, who had purchased it from the local Sisters of Charity. Later research showed that the masterpiece had been donated to the Sisters of Charity in 1837 through Bishop Joseph Flaget, where it now gets its name. Before that, it was believed to be part of the Vatican collections. The presence of the oak tree in the painting suggests it was originally a commission by the Della Rovere family, which would have been passed to the Medici family through the marriage of Vittoria Della Rovere to Ferdinando de’ Medici and then on to the Vatican.
Ayers spent much of his adult life studying the painting with various noted Raphael scholars and scientists. Unfortunately, he passed away earlier this year, but his widow Dawn Turco, along with friends Larry Cohen and Dr. David Sager, have continued the artwork’s research and analysis.
