PARMAGNUS
YOUNG COPERNICUS
Photorealistic portraits of 16th and 17th century astronomers from Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN)
Héctor Noriega-Mendoza, Physics Department (UTEP)
Abstract
We make use of Generative Adversarial Networks (ArtBreeder), a robust Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) and historical paintings to obtain photorealistic portraits of five 16th and 17th century astronomers for the first time (Nicolaus Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton). Taking Zajdel et al.'s (2005). forensic reconstruction of Copernicus's head as the best possible approximation available to date to Copernicus’s facial features, we used it to create a “young” version of the astronomer’s appearance. Portraits of Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton are entirely based upon well-known, historical paintings of the three scientists. Tycho Brahe’s model was based on the recent forensic reconstruction by Guyomarc’h et al. (2018).
Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) have had interesting applications to art in recent years, being Artbreeder a powerful neural-net creative tool and image generator relying on GAN technology. Daniel Voshart's Roman Emperor Project (2020) is an excellent example of how the combination of Artbreeder and a solid image editor like Photoshop are able to reproduce in high detail the facial appearance of Roman emperors from statues and historical references.
In this work, we apply a similar approach by making use of Artbreeder, a robust open-source image editor (GIMP) and historical paintings to obtain, for the first time, photorealistic portraits of five astronomers and founders of the heliocentric model of the solar system from the 16th and 17th centuries: Nicolaus Copernicus (Poland), Tycho Brahe (Denmark), Johannes Kepler (Germany), Galileo Galilei (Italy) and Isaac Newton (England).
Zajdel et al. (2005) made use of the forensic reconstruction of Nicolaus Copernicus's head and face to create the first known model of the Polish astronomer's facial appearance. In our work, in turn, we use Zajdel et al.'s model to generate a "younger" and photorealistic version of Copernicus's head that is consistent, at the same time, with the astronomer's facial features depicted in his self-portrait from the Torun gymnasium (1568).
More recently, Guyomarc'h et al. (2018) used the poorly preserved partial facial skeleton of Tycho Brahe to estimate the missing parts of his skull by means of virtual anthropology tools. We used their resulting model to create a photorealistic portrait of the Danish astronomer.
Johannes Kepler is the only case where we present two different versions of the German astronomer's physical appearance, given the incompatibility that we find between the general facial features depicted in Kepler's classic Strasbourg portrait (1620) and those in the popular, anonymous one from 1610.
All six models were constructed using a source image (either a painting or a forensic reconstruction) and either an iterative input-output-correction (IOC) or input-blending-output-correction (IBOC) process in Artbreeder, while GIMP made minor shape, size and color adjustments on the go to better fit the global and particular facial features for each astronomer.
An iterative iBOC process in Artbreeder was used to reproduce Copernicus's face, where we blended Zajdel et al.'s model (2005) and Copernicus's self-portrait (1568) to create the first, photorealistic model of the astronomer's facial appearance.
Source images of Copernicus from left to right: Zajdel et al.'s (2005) forensic reconstruction, a self-portrait by the Polish astronomer from the Torun gymnasium (1578) and the one by Jeremiasz Falck (1645), probably modelled on the original self-portrait.
Two models of Copernicus's face, with slightly lighter-colored hair according to Bogdanowicz et al. (2009).
We used an iterative IOC process in Artbreeder to create our Tycho Brahe model, entirely based on the forensic skull reconstruction of the Danish astronomer by Guyomarc'h et al. (2018). An updated model (2024) is shown below.
Source images of Brahe: Tycho's anonymous painting at The Royal Society (circa 1620), and Guyomarc'h et al.'s forensic reconstruction (2018) from Tycho's skull.
We used an iterative IOC process in Artbreeder to create two Kepler models from two globally different graphic depictions of the German astronomer's physical appearance.
Source images of Kepler from left to right: the anonymous Strasbourg portrait (1627), a variation of it and the 1610 anonymous painting.
Models of Kepler's appearance based on two similar historical portraits (left and center), and a third one displaying apparent globally-incompatible facial features like eyebrows, nose and chin.
A single reference historical painting of Galileo and an iterative IOC process in Artbreeder allowed us to model the Italian astronomer's middle-age facial features.
Source image of Galileo: a portrait by Francesco Apollodoro, circa 1602-07
A single reference historical painting of Newton and an iterative IOC process in Artbreeder allowed us to model the English scientist's facial features.
Source image of Newton: a portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1689.
Bogdanowicz, W. et al., PNAS, 2009, https://www.pnas.org/content/106/30/12279
Guyomarc’h, P. et al., Forensic Sci Int., 2018, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30296629
Voshart, D., Roman Emperor Project, 2020, https://voshart.com/roman-emperor-project Zajdel, D. et al., Nature News, 2005, https://www.nature.com/news/2005/051107/full/news051107-3.html