Image restoration of the office of the Vice President

The techniques of digital computer image processing have been employed to investigate the characteristics of paintings by the Italian master, Raphael. In particular spectral histograms have been generated for several of his paintings for individual areas such as hair, face, and garments. It was found that the palette employed by the artist does exhibit regularities. Similarly, spatial frequency histograms of like areas of his different paintings also show certain uniformities. Thus, the first steps have been taken in developing a `fingerprint' for the chromatic tonality and impasta characteristic of this artist's hand. Such information may be of use in trying to attribute controversial paintings where historical data are lacking and chemical data are ambiguous. This trial `fingerprint' has been applied to an unattributed Italian painting known as the `Madonna della Divino Amore.' Although the match to the `Raphael fingerprint' is not perfect it does offer sufficient encouragement to suggest that further investigations into the nature of its materials and its history are warranted.