Artist Shows How Roman Emperors Looked In Real Life By Using Facial Reconstruction, AI, And Photoshop
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 The guy from Université de Lausanne, Switzerland is combining facial recognition AI, Photoshop, and historical references to revive all the Roman emperors, from Augustus to Valentinian III.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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Augustus
Philip II
Galba
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 With the help of AI, Photoshop, and historical references, he came up with these hyperrealistic illustrations giving us a glimpse of how great Roman emperors like Caius Julius Cæsar Germanicus and Nero looked in real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.
Nero
The statue has a moon face and a pronounced double chin, both of which have been minimized in the recreation.
Well, according to the Roman biographer/historian Suetonius (author of the Twelve Caesars), Nero committed every horrible act known to man from incest to homicide so I'm sure he wasn't below stealing lunch money.
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How does the artist of the AI know if they would have facial hair or not, what kind of facial hair, since the statue hasn't any?
Nero's father was Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, the last name translates as 'bronze beard' or basically, 'red beard' so it is quite possible that Nero also had red hair.
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He banged his sister and committed some of the worst atrocities in human history. I only wish his death had been far more violent.
I think there have been worse atrocities committed before and after Nero. Also, virtually everything we know about him was written by his enemies, in particular by supporters of the Flavian dynasty that replaced the Julio-Claudians - they had to paint him as bad as they possibly could in order to legitimate the change of dynasty. No doubt though that he was a nasty piece of work but there is also a *lot* of exaggeration involved as well.
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This one is the guy that will always binge your favorite show, just to spoil the ending
Look at other busts of Nero and the guy looked like Jay Leno. Sorry, Jay. It's what it's.
Philip The Arab
Gordian II
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.
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.
Caligula
Domitian
Tiberius
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.
Claudius Gothicus
Dude kinda resembles Jerry Falwell Jr. (before the trouble) falwell-12...6-jpeg.jpg 
Trajan
Trajan did have some good acomplishments, his column would be worth seeing.
Hadrian
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.
Marcus Aurelius
Gordian III
Vitellius
Lucius Verus
Diocletian
Theodosius I
Antoninus Pius
Commodus
Claudius
Eyes are wrong. Need to be close set like the original bust. That is an important feature.
Valerian
Caracalla
Maximinus Thrax
Maximian
Titus
Otho
Note: this post originally had 69 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
I'm not sure about this, if you take one feature which shouldn't really require much interpretation e.g. the nose of the statute, then compare it to the picture there's little consistency which makes me question the accuracy of these interpretations.
Yip, some of them are pretty good, but most are so-so, and some are terrible. The noses are the thing most often not correct, particularly for the more lifelike statues/busts.
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Well, as it's said, it was a great idea but most of them are too different from those detailed sculptures. For next time, I would have begin with the scupture a a base, at least for bones and face expression. Some of them only needed colour. Do less images to begin but better done. And it'd be nice to have the words explaining what the artist added because found in references.
No good job at all. Obviously the "artist" spent more time to let the "reconstructions" look like famous actors than reconstructing the real faces. Just look at the mouthes. Almost all of them are wrong!
These are mathematical and digital representations. Are you done being dramatic? Stop projecting your need for cultural continuity. Its awkward.
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Hilarious all the “experts” here nitpicking details about the colour images that they think don’t match the sculpture. Don’t you think you’d have to at least see the busts in real life & in 3D to assess the success of the generated images?
Overall...a success in my opinion. Some are a bit off...maybe give it another shot..but far better then I could do! I liked it overall! Like staring into the face of our ancient ancestors.
NOSES, people. NOSES. Stop giving them nose jobs. Bumpy-lumpy noses were a fact of life, still are, just deal with it. Coloration can be taken from records of what historians said someone looked like, or two-dimensional renderings in mosaics, etc., but KEEP THEIR NOSES. My goodness!
Why do the brunettes get to have a variety of eye colors, but the blondes just have blue eyes? We don't all have blue or light eyes! Many of us don't.
What happens here is that the cultural references are latin. It's not the same a mediterranean blonde that an english one. And the brunettes are all under the english/us estotips,not what we understand and are. Colour eyes can be more objective.
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I think these all look awesome--guys, stop saying they're totally different. They're not going to be absolutely perfect, since of course we didn't have photos back then. Plus, statues can get damaged and look slightly different, and AI might get something a bit wrong that could be hard to fix later.
If you are portraying Roman emperors and citizens, should take into account that current Italian facial features will closely resemble those features of old. After all, they are their direct descents!
This might have worked if it was done directly from the photos. Some were close, not close enough. Thee face shapes were off with a lot of them. The eyes of most of them were aimed at the viewer and not focused in the right direction to fit the model. I would love to have seen it done right.
These look nothing like each other. It's like he just went and found a profile similar and did some minor editing.
they did an absolutely s****y job, the lips are different and some have beards! the eyes are going a different direction and the chins are wrong, what they did do? is make them all in color. so what.
I could probably google this, but can anyone tell me why some statues only have the outline of the eye, while others have pupils as well? Was is a personal choice of the sculptor, or did pupils come later down the line, maybe as sculpting evolved (or earlier)?
Some statues have a hole in the pupil because there was a stone there, usually a precious one. Stone statues were painted, so some details didn't need to be also sculpted.
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All you guys think you know better. Lmao. Silly people. It states that other was formation was used to create these images.
All of you complain… then do a better version yourself. They also wrote that this was done with other information given; not solely based off of the bust. Are any of you capable of reading an article without complaining or pretending that you know better?
Everyone saying they look nothing alike seems to not understand the statues aren't life-sized, wouldn't have been viewed face-on as we look at these images, and the statues would have been coloured with painted eyes. They were intended to be viewed with you looking up at them.
Speaking as a sculptor, who's done bronze portraits of people.. these interpretations fall way short... some have to small of a forehead ... to full of lips... not enough distance between nose and upper lip... to full of lips in a lot of them... I'm not a fan of poor interpretations..
Thank you. Yet it seems maybe of the future offspring of these heroes.
Many of the statues the eye brows are more arched. The drawings the eye brows flatter and not as rounded. The mouth is not as full and longer. The statues the mouths are fuller not as elongated.
Almost everyone on here has a negative remark, I would like to see them try this, it isn't quite so easy when you are doing it, but most are be quick towards the negativity. I paint and making something look real is not easy at all.
I think this is great but they could have done Emperor Nero ect half of these I have never heard of would have been nice to see a description of some of them but overall nice job
I looked at the first three and the new faces were attractive, but didn't really resemble the stone faces. So I just kind of glanced at the other and they weren't worth looking at.
Incredible technology and talent, but a lot of em don’t really look nothing like the statue, plus nobody at the time in Roman Empire had blue eyes and blond hair. They were all pretty tan and mostly curly with dark hair and dark eyes. Arian wash lol.
You think really? Idk much about the countries many are from but I did think they be a bit..Tanner on some cases. I know some Egyptians..they're pretty dark...it's hot out there. Lol
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This person's work bears no resemblance to historical depictions but there is an artist whose work does: https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2020/8/21/21395115/roman-emperors-photorealistic-portraits-ai-artbreeder-dan-voshart
I’m impressed but apparently most of the commenters aren’t so I’ll change my opinion as I assume the commenters are all far better than this artist and have a full breadth of similar work for them all to make such snarky negative comments 👍🏻
Everyone is saying in the comments that this doesn't look like the statue or they messed this up but if you look at the statues and you look at the things people are critiquing you'll see that they look a little unrealistic and that they don't belong on a human face.
White and black? What do you exaclty mean by that? If you mean people of sub saharan african origin, then no there wasn't "a lot" of them in ancient rome.
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I'm not sure about this, if you take one feature which shouldn't really require much interpretation e.g. the nose of the statute, then compare it to the picture there's little consistency which makes me question the accuracy of these interpretations.
Yip, some of them are pretty good, but most are so-so, and some are terrible. The noses are the thing most often not correct, particularly for the more lifelike statues/busts.
Load More Replies... Well, as it's said, it was a great idea but most of them are too different from those detailed sculptures. For next time, I would have begin with the scupture a a base, at least for bones and face expression. Some of them only needed colour. Do less images to begin but better done. And it'd be nice to have the words explaining what the artist added because found in references.
No good job at all. Obviously the "artist" spent more time to let the "reconstructions" look like famous actors than reconstructing the real faces. Just look at the mouthes. Almost all of them are wrong!
These are mathematical and digital representations. Are you done being dramatic? Stop projecting your need for cultural continuity. Its awkward.
Load More Replies... Hilarious all the “experts” here nitpicking details about the colour images that they think don’t match the sculpture. Don’t you think you’d have to at least see the busts in real life & in 3D to assess the success of the generated images?
Overall...a success in my opinion. Some are a bit off...maybe give it another shot..but far better then I could do! I liked it overall! Like staring into the face of our ancient ancestors.
NOSES, people. NOSES. Stop giving them nose jobs. Bumpy-lumpy noses were a fact of life, still are, just deal with it. Coloration can be taken from records of what historians said someone looked like, or two-dimensional renderings in mosaics, etc., but KEEP THEIR NOSES. My goodness!
Why do the brunettes get to have a variety of eye colors, but the blondes just have blue eyes? We don't all have blue or light eyes! Many of us don't.
What happens here is that the cultural references are latin. It's not the same a mediterranean blonde that an english one. And the brunettes are all under the english/us estotips,not what we understand and are. Colour eyes can be more objective.
Load More Replies... I think these all look awesome--guys, stop saying they're totally different. They're not going to be absolutely perfect, since of course we didn't have photos back then. Plus, statues can get damaged and look slightly different, and AI might get something a bit wrong that could be hard to fix later.
If you are portraying Roman emperors and citizens, should take into account that current Italian facial features will closely resemble those features of old. After all, they are their direct descents!
This might have worked if it was done directly from the photos. Some were close, not close enough. Thee face shapes were off with a lot of them. The eyes of most of them were aimed at the viewer and not focused in the right direction to fit the model. I would love to have seen it done right.
These look nothing like each other. It's like he just went and found a profile similar and did some minor editing.
they did an absolutely s****y job, the lips are different and some have beards! the eyes are going a different direction and the chins are wrong, what they did do? is make them all in color. so what.
I could probably google this, but can anyone tell me why some statues only have the outline of the eye, while others have pupils as well? Was is a personal choice of the sculptor, or did pupils come later down the line, maybe as sculpting evolved (or earlier)?
Some statues have a hole in the pupil because there was a stone there, usually a precious one. Stone statues were painted, so some details didn't need to be also sculpted.
Load More Replies... All you guys think you know better. Lmao. Silly people. It states that other was formation was used to create these images.
All of you complain… then do a better version yourself. They also wrote that this was done with other information given; not solely based off of the bust. Are any of you capable of reading an article without complaining or pretending that you know better?
Everyone saying they look nothing alike seems to not understand the statues aren't life-sized, wouldn't have been viewed face-on as we look at these images, and the statues would have been coloured with painted eyes. They were intended to be viewed with you looking up at them.
Speaking as a sculptor, who's done bronze portraits of people.. these interpretations fall way short... some have to small of a forehead ... to full of lips... not enough distance between nose and upper lip... to full of lips in a lot of them... I'm not a fan of poor interpretations..
Thank you. Yet it seems maybe of the future offspring of these heroes.
Many of the statues the eye brows are more arched. The drawings the eye brows flatter and not as rounded. The mouth is not as full and longer. The statues the mouths are fuller not as elongated.
Almost everyone on here has a negative remark, I would like to see them try this, it isn't quite so easy when you are doing it, but most are be quick towards the negativity. I paint and making something look real is not easy at all.
I think this is great but they could have done Emperor Nero ect half of these I have never heard of would have been nice to see a description of some of them but overall nice job
I looked at the first three and the new faces were attractive, but didn't really resemble the stone faces. So I just kind of glanced at the other and they weren't worth looking at.
Incredible technology and talent, but a lot of em don’t really look nothing like the statue, plus nobody at the time in Roman Empire had blue eyes and blond hair. They were all pretty tan and mostly curly with dark hair and dark eyes. Arian wash lol.
You think really? Idk much about the countries many are from but I did think they be a bit..Tanner on some cases. I know some Egyptians..they're pretty dark...it's hot out there. Lol
Load More Replies... This person's work bears no resemblance to historical depictions but there is an artist whose work does: https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2020/8/21/21395115/roman-emperors-photorealistic-portraits-ai-artbreeder-dan-voshart
I’m impressed but apparently most of the commenters aren’t so I’ll change my opinion as I assume the commenters are all far better than this artist and have a full breadth of similar work for them all to make such snarky negative comments 👍🏻
Everyone is saying in the comments that this doesn't look like the statue or they messed this up but if you look at the statues and you look at the things people are critiquing you'll see that they look a little unrealistic and that they don't belong on a human face.
White and black? What do you exaclty mean by that? If you mean people of sub saharan african origin, then no there wasn't "a lot" of them in ancient rome.
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