Researchers at伦敦大学学院(UCL) have combined X-ray, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and 3D printing technologies to reproduce a lost Vincent Van Gogh painting.
Working with artist Jesper Eriksson, PhD students Anthony Bourached and George Cann have developed a workflow in which X-ray imaging can be used to see through layers of paint, including those used to paint over existing works.
This data can then be fed into an AI algorithm capable of extrapolating an artist’s style, and 3D modeling an artwork that imagines what the original might have looked like. By applying their process to a Van Gogh painting, the researchers have found it possible to uncover and recreate one of his lost works known as The ‘Two Wrestlers,’ although they admit it’s impossible to verify the accuracy of their work.
“这就像原始的painting is impossible to tell at this point because the information doesn’t exist,” says Bourached, who is researching Machine Learning and Behavioral Neuroscience at UCL. “I think it’s very convincing – by far the best guess we can get with current technology.”
Bringing lost artwork to life
Eriksson and Bourached’s Van Gogh recreation is their latest in a series of reimaginings developed as part of their ‘NeoMasters’ collection. Since 2019, the researchers have worked to bring lost paintings to life, using a series of algorithms that work by identifying the edges of a given piece, before creating an outline of any figures identified via X-ray data.
然后可以将结果数据馈入神经网络，该神经网络从艺术家以前的作品中学习，以预测绘画的外观，从颜色到细节，例如笔触，为3D可打印的复制品创造了基础。
Using this technique, the team has managed to reconstruct a number of lost artworks. In 2021, the UCL researchers were able to reproduce Pablo Picasso’s ‘The Blind Man’s Meal,’ a piece hidden underneath one of his ‘Blue Period’ paintings, an unfinished artwork of a crouching nude woman, also depicted in the background of his ‘La Vie’ painting.
“我认为毕加索积极欢迎这样的法医s, since he himself said; ‘I just painted the images that rose before my eyes. It is for other people to find the hidden meanings,'” Bourached claimed at the time. “Like Leonardo imagining the helicopter, was Picasso envisioning technology that could recall his lost or incomplete work? It is certainly a hidden secret that La Vie points to.”
发现一个隐藏的梵高
梵高的“两名摔跤手”是十年前首次由专家发现的安特卫普大学, who were investigating whether the work ‘Still Life with Meadow Flowers and Roses’ was authentic. While doing so, those examining the artwork used X-rays to see through the layers of paint, and discovered two figures had been painted over.
As it turned out, these two hidden wrestlers had been created using brush strokes and pigments consistent with Van Gogh’s prior work, and the subject matter was a common theme at theAntwerp Art Academy他于1886年在那里学习。梵高还给他的兄弟西奥（Theo）写了一封信，他说他“用两个裸体torsos绘制了一件大事 - 两名摔跤手”，因此证明了这是他的。
Bourached and Cann利用相同的过程帮助重现了他们以前的NeoMasters系列作品，发现他们也能够复活Van Gogh的绘画。与他们的其他重建一样，UCL二人的项目看到了他们部署了一个从数百幅梵高的其他作品中学到的神经网络，以创建这种质量，它显示在Louvre。
The pair’s 3D printed Two Wrestlers restoration was displayed at the museum in Paris from September 1-4, 2022 as part of the关注艺术博览会。与MORF Galleryin California and the researchers’ companyOxia Palus, the exhibition also included recovered paintings by artists like Leonardo Da Vinci and Amedeo Modigliani.
Those still hoping to catch a glimpse of the team’s 3D printed art collection can check it out during theDeeep AI艺术博览会, which is set to take place in London from October 10-13, 2022.
3D打印的艺术应用
Advanced visualization and manufacturing technologies continue to gain traction as a means of both producing and recreating works of art. Just last year, Maltese ceramic artistNico Conti展出3D printed porcelain artworkseries at theCollect art fair带有蕾丝状图案。有趣的是，在此过程中使用故障，艺术家能够在其结构的表面上产生缺陷和独特的挤压。
At theVictoria University of Wellington, meanwhile, student Joseph Coddington has developed a means of体素3D打印Claude Monet绘画。Having usedAdobe Photoshopto replicate the painting digitally, the researcher then deployed aStratasys J750 3D打印机to create a replica of a panel from the artist’s Waterlillies collection.
在其他地方，在邻近的人工恢复领域，3D扫描和3D打印也已被多次修复数百年的建筑。在一种情况下，Prototekused 3D printing to preserve 14th century doorsat an Italian baptistery that were suffering from deterioration, by scanning the originals and replacing them with exact replicas.
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特色图片显示了UCL研究人员对两名摔跤手的3D印刷娱乐活动。通过UCL的照片。
