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If you've ever set foot in a museum of Greek and Roman art, you've probably seen the rows of tranquil-looking concrete busts. They do, however, have no pupils in the eyes, lack any sort of color, and in general, get kinda repetitive after the third and fourth display hall.

But the artist named Haround Binous is bringing the dusty emperors back to life in a series of hyper-realistic illustrations. The guy from Université de Lausanne, Switzerland is combining facial recognition AI, Photoshop, and historical references to revive all the Roman emperors, from Augustus to Valentinian III.

The result is so precise and true to life, these ancient dudes with luscious curls and sun-kissed tans could easily pass as A-list Hollywood actors off duty. I mean, look at Augustus—is that you, Daniel Craig?

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#1

Augustus

Augustus

Haroun Binous Report

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Ani Archeron
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3 years ago

its like a mix of jeremy renner and daniel craig

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#2

Philip II

Philip II

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Deson
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What throws me off is you can see the pupils on the sculpture. The eyes in the CGI don't match the location of the sculpture.

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Turning cold emperors' stones into hyperreal flesh may seem like a mission impossible. But with the help of today’s machine learning technologies, images can be reconstructed and brought to life in colorful illustrations.

This is what Haroun has done for his Roman emperor recreations. With the help of AI, Photoshop, and historical references, he came up with these hyperrealistic illustrations giving us a glimpse of how great Roman emperors like Caius Julius Cæsar Germanicus and Nero looked in real life.

#4

Nero

Nero

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sbj
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Looks like Prince Harry has gained a bit of weight due to the lock down

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#5

Philip The Arab

Philip The Arab

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Evelína Zlá
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think the eyes too... and the ears... and the forehead. To be honest looks like completely different person... handsome but different.

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TS Rhodes
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The Romans were amazing at accurately portraying how people really looked - and in stone!

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Brent Kaufman
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9 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

His left AI jaw juts out but his right side is straight. His AI brow is much stronger than his fallen sculpted brows.

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Gillian Gray
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This guy is the one who always go around with their daughter selling girl scout cookies.

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Shelly Graham
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Somewhat, but she's also using other sources of information to compile her likenesses.

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Miriam Hirsch
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The shape of the reconstructed face does not look like the sculpture. You have thinned out the face much too much.

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Nancy Sargent
Community Member
3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

These don't look that close to a lot of the statues. This guy's eyes are different and the tip of the nose completely different. Unless they were mixing the statues with historical information? It looks like someone had a personal program and just did their own thing. ???

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Victoria
Community Member
5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No I think you just don’t want to accept that he looked like this.

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Holly Molly
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Is it me or does the statue look sadder than the AI?

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Mimi M
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Tried to pretty him up - doesn't have the same features.

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Haroun Binous said he used “superposition and simultaneous comparison” techniques that “allowed me to arrive at these faces.”But the facial features are just one part of the job.

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In order to get hold of the textures and colors, Haroun researched original historical sources. “Eyes, hair, and colors were based on quotes from Suetonius,” he wrote.

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In reality, it’s not entirely clear how accurate the emperors' busts are to begin with since our best evidence of how they looked are the busts themselves. However, we do perceive them as roughly accurate, since we now know that stylistically, the Romans preferred realism in their sculpture dating back to the Republican period.

Other than busts, historical sources do reveal a thing or two about the people of the Roman Empire. The Roman historian Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, for example, who wrote during the early Imperial era, described some of the emperors in his notes.

#11

Trajan

Trajan

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According to Christies, Suetonius was very receptive to physiognomic thinking and “may have been swayed by them in his description of the fearsome appearance of Caligula.” He was presented as the epitome of arbitrary cruelty and immoral excesses that was reflected in his description of Caligula’s face.

On the other side of the opposite extreme, there was a fair share of heroic idealization of the most powerful men and it’s likely that their busts have done some justice to their looks. Who knows—maybe some of the most breathtaking busts have undergone an ancient equivalent of airbrushing? That, we may never know.

#13

Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius

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#23

Claudius

Claudius

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Elak Swindell
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Eyes are wrong. Need to be close set like the original bust. That is an important feature.

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#24

Valerian

Valerian

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Brian H
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I understand that talking to him was very boring and he would put you to sleep if you tried to talk to him. He was always sleepy himself.

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#27

Maximinus Thrax

Maximinus Thrax

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#30

Otho

Otho

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Note: this post originally had 69 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.