Abstract
In this second work on the Holy Face of Manoppello, known also as the Veil, we have performed a spectral analysis of the transmitted image. Its thin linen threads are translucent, presumably because starched, allowing light to pass through them. As a result, the yellowish colour of the ancient linen and starch contribute substantially to the final hues of the Holy Face, especially when the Veil is lit from the backside with grazing light. Spectrophotometry measurements have allowed calculating how the fabric absorbs the various chromatic components. Through these quantitative evaluations, it has been possible to compensate the colours of the transmitted Holy Face image, by subtracting the contribution due to the yellowish coloration of the thin linen threads. Furthermore, the rotational spectrum of the image has been studied after digital restoration. The linear fit of the power spectrum in bi-logarithmic scale with a power law f P provided a slope parameter P = − 3.49 ± 0.03 . This is a surprising value because it is typical of photographs of human faces, not of portraits of human faces painted by artists, which instead have statistical properties of fractal type, with values of slopes P = − 2.0 .
Highlights
The Holy Face, or Veil of Manoppello, is a rectangular canvas of 240 × 175 mm2 of very thin, semi-transparent fabric, on which is depicted the image of a male face, associated in the religious iconography to Jesus Christ
This is a surprising value because it is typical of photographs of human faces, not of portraits of human faces painted by artists, which instead have statistical properties of fractal type, with values of slopes P = −2.0
It is important to note that the power spectrum of the Holy Face of Manoppello, very close to a straight line in the Cartesian log-log plane for a large range is fitted by a value that correlates itself very well with those fitted to the spectra of photographs of human faces
Summary
The Holy Face, or Veil of Manoppello, is a rectangular canvas of 240 × 175 mm of very thin, semi-transparent fabric, on which is depicted the image of a male face, associated in the religious iconography to Jesus Christ. The texture of the Veil, made up of thin threads spaced more than their diameter, predisposes it to deform making the Holy Face markedly asymmetric, with the eyes not at the same distance from the nose-mouth axis and with the horizontal axis across them not perpendicular to the vertical nose-mouth axis [1] For this reason, in the first part of this work, we have first analysed the icon from an optical point of view, with infrared and ultraviolet light and with an optical microscope. We have focused our attention on the reflection image transmitted by the Veil when it is illuminated by grazing light and have corrected the deformation of the Holy Face caused by the distortion of the weft and warp threads [1].
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