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RESEARCH

It is not a painting, but an imprint, or the sign left by a body . Beyond this reasonable certainty, the mystery surrounding the formation of the image on the Shroud is still thick. Scientific research on the Holy Shroud is quite recent. It dates back to May 25, 1898 when the lawyer Secondo Pia, a non-professional photographer, took – on royal commission – the first photographs of the Shroud. From the photographic plates emerged the negative nature of the image in the inversion of light and shade , compared to reality. Thus, new horizons opened up for scientific research on the Shroud starting from the question of the genesis of the image.

Some have hypothesized that the imprint was produced by chemical reactions between ammonia vapors emitted by the corpse and the aloe and myrrh (perfumed plant substances used in ancient times to honor the dead) present on the sheet. Others have supposed that it could be radiation coming from the body or from some external source ; still others have carried out experiments using the thermal energy generated by a heated metal statue. But in no case have the tests produced satisfactory results. The hypothesis of a painting with red ochre does not hold up, as demonstrated by the group of American scientists from STURP (Shroud of Turin Research Project) , who in 1978 , by means of direct analyses on the Shroud, ascertained that the traces of pigments and dyes on the Sheet did not contribute to the formation of the body image.

The electronic processing of the Shroud image – carried out by a team of scholars from Turin – was able to demonstrate the presence of three-dimensional characteristics in the image, which are completely absent in paintings that simulate depth only through shades of color and perspective representations. In more recent years, again thanks to computer programs, the face of the Man of the Shroud was also able to be cleaned of wounds and swellings, revealing features very similar to the main icons of the face of Jesus from the first millennium of the Christian era. Hence the hypothesis that that face was the prototype of Christian iconography , at least from the sixth century onwards. Research on the imprint was accompanied by biological, chemical and blood studies .

Insights

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