AI analysis found that Raphael's classic works may be ghostwritten

Recently, the academic journal Heritage Science published a new study by mathematician and computer scientist Hassan Ughal and his research team. The research team used artificial intelligence neural networks (AI) to conduct in-depth Xi analysis and found that there is a character in Raphael's painting Madonna of the Rosary that was not painted by Raphael. Can the judgment results given by AI be used as an official judgment? Will AI appraisers be hired in the future? What are the other applications of AI in the field of art?

Madonna of the Rosary has always been controversial

Generative AI, also known as AIGC, refers to content generated by AI, that is, artificial intelligence algorithms. For example, you only need to enter a few prompts, and the AI will produce the articles, videos, audios, images, etc. you want. For this essay on Raphael's painting identification, the paper titled "Deep Transfer Xi for Visual Analysis and Attribution of Raphael's Paintings" says in the abstract that in art history, visual analysis and identification of artworks is a central task. The research team aimed at the painter Raphael and applied the deep feature analysis technology to the ResNet50 artificial intelligence deep neural network. After analyzing, detecting, and Xi, AI captures the essence of Raphael's artistic style.

The Madonna theme of Our Lady of the Rosary is one of Raphael's most common themes. The painting is believed to have been created between 1518 and 1520. In 1520, Raphael died young. The Madonna of the Rosary is also considered one of Raphael's last paintings of the Madonna – there are four figures in the painting: the Madonna, the Child, St. John and St. Joseph.

Since the 19th century, there has been some controversy as to whether the painting was painted by Raphael. Although most people believe that the painting was painted by Raphael before his death in Rome, some people have pointed out that the style of the male St. Joseph in the upper left corner of the painting does not look very delicate, which is different from Raphael's delicate and delicate painting style, and suspects that the painting is a forgery.

This time, the research team asked the AI to analyze the local features of the faces of all the characters in "Our Lady of the Rosary" and finally came to the conclusion that St. Joseph is the only one with a different style. At the same time, the AI believes that all parts except St. Joseph were made by Raphael.

In Raphael's artistic career, there were indeed cases of assistants working together in painting. For example, Giulio Romano, an Italian painter and one of the founders of Mannerism, was an assistant in Raphael's studio when he was young, and assisted Raphael in completing paintings such as "Raphael's Room". In addition, it has been recorded that after Raphael's death, Romano completed some of Raphael's unfinished works, such as the Appearance of the Holy Face. Some researchers have speculated that Madonna of the Rosary may also have been added to Romano's painting after Raphael's death, but there is no clear evidence to support this.

AI identification is still in the Xi stage

The advent of AI technology has brought new possibilities to art identification. Ugaire's team used the model to identify several of Raphael's famous, authentic paintings with 98 percent accuracy. Ughel said that AI recognizes the subtle styles of Raphael's work, from brushstrokes to tones, from shadows to overall layouts, and its visual capabilities go far beyond the microscopic details that the human eye can perceive.

Before identifying Madonna of the Rosary, the AI model had identified Raphael's Dobreston, a painting that bears a striking resemblance to Raphael's masterpiece Madonna Sistine, and has long been considered a facsimile. After the AI model identified it, it was believed that the painting was made by Raphael and not a facsimile.

However, this identification of AI is controversial. Some art researchers have doubted the accuracy of the AI model, and some scholars have suggested that from the perspective of art historical research, Raphael would not have made such a move as a copy of the Sistine Madonna at the peak of his artistic career. Wang Ning, a domestic art curator, said bluntly: "AI identification is still in the Xi stage, and the team also said that the accuracy rate reaches 98%, so there are still errors." This is an interesting application of AI in the field of art, and it is by no means the final word. At this stage, AI identification only provides a new perspective, providing a new perspective and a 'new helper' for humans to re-examine and appreciate Raphael's works. "Appraisal of an artwork is a complex process that takes into account various factors, such as provenance, pigments, state of preservation, and so on. AI is only one of the auxiliary tools, and the final judgment is still made by experts. ”

Field extension

AI "artist" generated images are also copyrighted

With the development of AI technology, in addition to the application of AI "appraisers", what other application scenarios can AI be used in the art field? ”

Indeed, since the rise of the concept of AI in early 2023, the first artistic practice is "AI-generated pictures" - this technology has been developed for many years, and netizens can adjust "AI-generated pictures" through personal instructions, so that they can get a painting without drawing by hand. Tong Tong, a student at the Academy of Fine Arts, told reporters: "With the rise of crypto art, many students in the school have used AI to create in recent years. The integration of technology and art has become one of the more cutting-edge creative techniques of the Academy of Fine Arts. ”

In December 2023, the Beijing Internet Court held a public hearing of the first known AI painting case in China in the era of large models. In this case, the defendant saw an AI-generated picture on the Internet and thought it was beautiful, thinking that it was generated by AI after all, and no one would ask for copyright, so he forwarded it directly to his own self-media platform. As a result, although the AI did not come to ask for the copyright, the person who controlled the AI to generate the image sued. The Beijing Internet Court made a judicial determination on "whether the AI painting constitutes a work within the meaning of the Copyright Law", found that the plaintiff owned the copyright of the AI painting, and sentenced the defendant to pay RMB 500 in compensation.

It is reported that on January 13th, the "Human-Machine Integration: The Age of Robot Art" science and technology art exhibition will be held in 798CUBE, and more cutting-edge content integrating art and technology will be unveiled at the exhibition.

Text/Reporter Wang Lei

Source: Beijing Youth Daily