The facial reconstruction of Dante Alighieri using linear cranial measurements to predict his missing mandible

Abstract

If the mandible is missing, a large section of the lower face must be interpreted and estimated for shape and form. This is the case of Dante Alighieri whose original mandible was never found. In this study a new virtual reconstruction of his mandible was designed based on a mathematical method. In this work a new virtual reconstruction of the mandible was designed based on linear measurements of the skull. A three-dimensional standard mandible was designed and modelled on the size of Dante's skull, previously virtually reproduced by scanning the plaster model made by the anthropologist Fabio Frassetto in 1921 with a 3D scanner and imported into a 3D graphic modelling software. After the preliminary work to reconstruct the mandible, the skull was completed and a new 3D virtual facial reconstruction of Dante was developed according to the methods commonly used in forensic contexts.