Unveiling the physical appearance of great names in History is, without a doubt, a justifiable dream of a large number of scholars, admirers or even curious people eager to make their particular approach to that figure more immersive: giving a "face" to a name is instinctive and intensely emblematic for us because, in this way, we step out of the semiotic-intellectual and into the factual. After reconstructing the faces of various personalities (or devotions) - such as Mary of Nazareth, the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Mona Lisa and the powhatan princess Pocahontas - I searched again for the Art History and Artificial Intelligence to reveal what the faces of two of the most inspiring and famous saints of medieval Christianity would have looked like: Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone (1182-1226) and Chiara Offreduccio di Favarone (1194-1253), or St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi.
For St. Francis, there were mainly two bases for the experiment: first, an anonymous painting with the inscription Fraciscu, from the Benedictine monastery in Subiaco, near Rome; and second, a text by the saint's first biographer and personal friend, the Franciscan Thomas of Celano (1185-1260). The painting is the oldest portrait of Francis and would have been made using the saint as a living model during his visit to the monastery between 1220 and 1223. In the depiction, in fact, the saint is shown without the halo, an attribute granted only post mortem, and without the emblematic stigmata, which appeared in 1224. As for the texts by Thomas of Celano, they were written in 1228 to compose his work, the Prima Vita - commissioned by Pope Gregory IX.
For St. Francis, there were mainly two bases for the experiment: first, an anonymous painting with the inscription Fraciscu, from the Benedictine monastery in Subiaco, near Rome; and second, a text by the saint's first biographer and personal friend, the Franciscan Thomas of Celano (1185-1260). The painting is the oldest portrait of Francis and would have been made using the saint as a living model during his visit to the monastery between 1220 and 1223. In the depiction, in fact, the saint is shown without the halo, an attribute granted only post mortem, and without the emblematic stigmata, which appeared in 1224. As for the texts by Thomas of Celano, they were written in 1228 to compose his work, the Prima Vita - commissioned by Pope Gregory IX.
Presumed look of Francis and Clare based on Byzantine representations, documents and forensic analysis (IMAGE: Átila Soares).
For Chiara, the sources for the experiment were the reconstruction conducted by the preservation team of her mortal remains, led by Monsignor Gianfranco Nolli between 1986 and 1987, and, poorly, an anonymous painting executed in 1283 - the first hagiographic panel dedicated to the saint and preserved in the basilica built in her honor in Assisi. Without any indication of the identity of the work's author - which was a very common thing in the Middle Ages - it was agreed to call him as the "Master of St. Clare."
The process of reconstruction
Lacking satisfactory sources (as usual) on the real appearance of the two saints, I resorted to some A.I. tools and image editing softwares, as well as considering some art-historical issues related to both portraits. First, I’ve tried to discard the stylistic features from the paintings, which are strongly marked by the Byzantine style. Posteriorly, I promoted a factually reasonable correspondence between these and the other related sources that have come down to us.
For Francis, some notes by Thomas of Celano, sometimes contrasting issues, such as the "black eyes." And for Clare, the result obtained from the intervention carried out in the 1980s by Gianfranco Nolli. Since she died at the age of 59 from not so clear causes, the appearance obtained from Nolli's project was that of an aged and haggard Clare. One must, of course, take into account the fact that the lifestyle adopted by the saint herself had as a commandment the total abandonment of daily comforts and physical pleasures - which forces us to consider a direct relation to the biologically premature exhaustion of her vital forces. I, on the other hand, preferred to recover a still young Clare, around 18, as having just arrived at the confraternity of her great spiritual mentor, Francis of Assisi, and still full of life and good expectations.
Entering the Medieval World with Anthropology and artificial intelligence isn't a new thing for me: I had already developed, in 2022, a graphic characterization/rejuvenation project of "Tora", a 13th-century elderly woman recreated by the Museum of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The results I obtained were approved by the team's chief archaeologist, Dr. Ellen Grav. This time, putting a new face on Francis and Clare of Assisi could be an alternative way to learn about and meditate on these two of the most powerful and charismatic figures in Christianity: Francis, the man who came closest to the figure of Christ. The first ecologist in History. And Clare, bold, decisive and gentle. Two saints who made themselves so minor to reach the heights of the greatest glory. Bringing them back to life is an inspiration, for all of us, to good things when we look back on Creation and its purposes.
The process of reconstruction
Lacking satisfactory sources (as usual) on the real appearance of the two saints, I resorted to some A.I. tools and image editing softwares, as well as considering some art-historical issues related to both portraits. First, I’ve tried to discard the stylistic features from the paintings, which are strongly marked by the Byzantine style. Posteriorly, I promoted a factually reasonable correspondence between these and the other related sources that have come down to us.
For Francis, some notes by Thomas of Celano, sometimes contrasting issues, such as the "black eyes." And for Clare, the result obtained from the intervention carried out in the 1980s by Gianfranco Nolli. Since she died at the age of 59 from not so clear causes, the appearance obtained from Nolli's project was that of an aged and haggard Clare. One must, of course, take into account the fact that the lifestyle adopted by the saint herself had as a commandment the total abandonment of daily comforts and physical pleasures - which forces us to consider a direct relation to the biologically premature exhaustion of her vital forces. I, on the other hand, preferred to recover a still young Clare, around 18, as having just arrived at the confraternity of her great spiritual mentor, Francis of Assisi, and still full of life and good expectations.
Entering the Medieval World with Anthropology and artificial intelligence isn't a new thing for me: I had already developed, in 2022, a graphic characterization/rejuvenation project of "Tora", a 13th-century elderly woman recreated by the Museum of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The results I obtained were approved by the team's chief archaeologist, Dr. Ellen Grav. This time, putting a new face on Francis and Clare of Assisi could be an alternative way to learn about and meditate on these two of the most powerful and charismatic figures in Christianity: Francis, the man who came closest to the figure of Christ. The first ecologist in History. And Clare, bold, decisive and gentle. Two saints who made themselves so minor to reach the heights of the greatest glory. Bringing them back to life is an inspiration, for all of us, to good things when we look back on Creation and its purposes.
Professor Átila Soares da Costa Filho (Opening picture: Assisi City - Thinkstock)