Raffaello's face reconstructed in 3D by Tor Vergata researchers

A team from the University of Rome Tor Vergata, in collaboration with the Fondazione Vigamus and the Accademia Raffaello di Urbino, has created a 3D computer reconstruction of Raphael's face in adulthood. The work, to be submitted to Nature, used a plaster cast of the skull made by Camillo Torrenti in 1833 during the artist's exhumation, now displayed at the Museo Casa Natale di Raffaello. The reconstruction confirms that the remains in Raphael's Pantheon tomb are indeed his, resolving centuries of doubt. Professor Luigi Bravi, President of the Accademia Raffaello, and Professor Mattia Falconi, associate of Molecular Biology at Tor Vergata, explained that previous 1863 investigations by anatomist Antonio Trasmondo, though advanced for their time, were inconclusive. The facial reconstruction was done manually on computer by Cristina Martinez-Labarga (Forensic Anthropology) and Raoul Carbone (3D Graphics Applied to Forensic Sciences), president of Fondazione Vigamus. The technique recreates the face at the time of death based solely on skull morphology, widely used in archaeology and forensics. Raphael likely died of pneumonia at age 37. The rendering shows pronounced facial features, contrasting with his gentler self-portrait (1504–1506) at the Uffizi in Florence.