A Neural Network Looks at Leonardo's(?) Salvator Mundi

2020/05/21 by Steven J. Frank, Frank, Steven J., Andrea M. Frank +1
Computer Science · #Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI) #Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #cs.AI #cs.CV

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2005.10600

This is the author's final version. The article has been accepted for publication in Leonardo (MIT Press)

arxiv created 2020/05/21 · arxiv updated 2020/05/22

Abstract

We use convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to analyze authorship questions surrounding the works of Leonardo da Vinci -- in particular, Salvator Mundi, the world's most expensive painting and among the most controversial. Trained on the works of an artist under study and visually comparable works of other artists, our system can identify likely forgeries and shed light on attribution controversies. Leonardo's few extant paintings test the limits of our system and require corroborative techniques of testing and analysis.

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