Raphael did a nose-job in self-portrait, face reconstruction suggests

Raphael's self-portrait [Photo: Courtesy]

Raphael probably didn’t like his nose, and replaced it with an idealised version in his famous self-portrait. That is the conclusion of Rome University scientists who produced a 3D computer reconstruction of the Renaissance master’s face from a plaster cast of his presumed skull made in 1833.

In that year, the remains believed to be those of the man hailed by his contemporaries as “the divine one” because he sought perfection through his work were last exhumed. “He certainly made his nose look more refined,” said Professor Mattia Falconi, a molecular biologist at the university’s Tor Vergata campus. “His nose was, let’s say, slightly more prominent.”