The researchers have dubbed the recovered artwork as ‘The Two Wrestlers’, which depicts two shirtless athletes grappling in front of an abstract background. The Dutch painter reused the canvas for an unrelated painting depicting flowers.
It’s the latest in a series of recreations by PhD researchers Anthony Bourached (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology) and George Cann (UCL Space and Climate Physics).
Working with artist Jesper Eriksson, the UCL duo’s NeoMasters project brings lost works of art to life and has been a series the team has been working on since 2019.
The team is using a newly developed process that uses X-ray imaging to see through every layer of paint, artificial intelligence (AI) to extrapolate the style used by the artist, and 3D printing to produce the final piece.
Bourached says: “How much it is like the original painting is impossible to tell at this point because the information doesn’t exist. I think it’s very convincing - by...