With the help of multispectral photography, it was possible to visualize the portrait of the king, made on the binding of the first dated printed book in Russia
Employees of the Historical Museum and the Institute for Space Research (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, using multispectral imagery, which is used to study space, "saw" the only lifetime portrait of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible on the binding of "Apostle" - the first dated printed book in Russia. This was reported by the press service of the IKI RAS.
Scientists suggest that the only genuine lifetime portrait of Tsar Ivan IV was made using copper engraving technique and imprinted on the top cover of the Apostle. It was made on a special tray copy - a token of gratitude from one of the first Russian book printers Ivan Fedorov to the Tsar for supporting the printing business. Over time, the relief with the portrait of the king almost completely disappeared from the binding.
"The Apostle" has long been kept in the collection of the Historical Museum. Moreover, back in the 19th century, scientists recorded that there was a certain image there, it was indistinct, only outlines. Thanks to the techniques used by an employee of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the image and facial features that have completely disappeared over time began to appear, "Marina Chistyakova, deputy director of the State Historical Museum for fund work, told TASS.
“The lifetime portrait of Tsar Ivan IV, embossed on the binding of the first printed Apostle in 1564, was discovered using multispectral photography. The image is considered extinct: embossed on a leather cover, it smoothed over time, and is no longer visible to the naked eye. To visualize the portrait, special methods of shooting in various spectral ranges and original image processing algorithms were used,”noted at the IKI RAS. After processing the images, the outlines of the face appeared in the images.
Scientists have yet to establish the author of this portrait. Elena Ukhanova, a senior researcher at the State Historical Museum, suggests that he could have been the son of the painter Dionysius Theodosius, who mastered the western technique of copper engraving in the middle of the 16th century.
Thanks to the joint work of the staff of the State Historical Museum and the Institute of Space Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, another discovery was made: an ancient Glagolic palimpsest of the Cyril and Methodius era from the museum collection. “These are handwritten monuments on parchment. It was very expensive and appreciated, so there was a practice of erasing old inscriptions and applying new ones. Thanks to research, the Glagolitic alphabet was found under the Cyrillic script, there are very few such surviving monuments and this is actually a discovery,”Chistyakova said.
