Could artificial intelligence have unraveled the enigma surrounding one of El Greco’s most mysterious paintings?
For a long time, art historians speculated that The Baptism of Christ was a collaborative effort by El Greco and other artists. However, recent findings challenge this notion.
The Baptism of Christ is among El Greco’s most intriguing works from the Spanish Renaissance. The painting captures a towering John the Baptist pouring water over the head of an even larger, almost radiant Jesus, as God, angels, and cherubs look down in a state of heavenly ecstasy. It’s a striking and vivid image. Art historians previously thought it was incomplete when El Greco passed away in 1614 and that it was finished by his son, Jorge Manuel, with the aid of other workshop apprentices.
However, new research tells a different story. Using artificial intelligence, researchers delved into The Baptism of Christ at a microscopic scale, searching for patterns in the paint texture at the level of a single brush bristle. The findings suggest that El Greco painted most of The Baptism himself, though some experts call for further research.
While not conclusive, this study challenges the multi-artist theory and raises questions that demand more exploration, according to Andrew Van Horn, the lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher in the anthropology department at Purdue University.
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During the Renaissance, master painters often had apprentices who worked alongside them, learning the trade. These apprentices might mix paint pigments, prepare canvases, and even contribute to certain details in paintings. Without detailed records, identifying who painted what in a master’s workshop can be challenging, Van Horn notes.
For years, art historians have relied on brushstroke styles and other visual and textural clues to determine whether a painting can be attributed to a single artist or should be credited to his workshop. This detective work can be contentious, sometimes leading to misattributions, overlooked masterpieces, or disputes over the rightful creator.
This is where artificial intelligence can play a crucial role. Van Horn and his team developed a machine-learning model trained on 25 paintings by nine student artists. They then tested the model on two paintings by El Greco: The Baptism of Christ and Christ on the Cross with Landscape, the latter believed to be solely El Greco’s work.
The AI confirmed that Christ on the Cross was the work of one artist. However, its analysis of The Baptism revealed a hidden continuity between sections thought to be painted by different artists, according to Van Horn. Essentially, at the microscopic level, the painting appeared more consistent than previously thought.
“What aids us is the ability to examine things on a very fine scale, allowing us to see details invisible to the naked eye,” Van Horn explains.
The study, conducted in collaboration with art historians, indicates that The Baptism may have been predominantly painted by El Greco, possibly using different brushes or while his hands were affected by age. These findings were published in Science Advances.
“Creating an AI system to determine a painting’s authorship is incredibly challenging,” says Mark Hamilton, a visiting researcher at MIT’s Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, who was not involved in the research. “Artists may change styles during painting, collaborators might mimic a master’s style, and conservation efforts or damage can alter measurements.”
“Any AI system must be rigorously tested on real data where art historians already know the ‘answer’ to validate its accuracy,” he adds. “Although this research makes progress, it trains and tests its algorithm on a small set of 25 student paintings and doesn’t validate on ancient artworks. I’d be cautious in trusting its predictions without further validation.”
“This represents a promising initial step in establishing El Greco’s authorship, but more work is needed,” says Richard Taylor, a professor of physics, psychology, and art at the University of Oregon, who was also not involved in the study. “While their analysis shows interconnected communities within the painting, it doesn’t definitively resolve the question,” he notes, pointing out the study’s small sample size. “A comprehensive analysis of many more paintings is necessary to draw definite conclusions.”
If validated, these results could reshape how art historians perceive the latter part of El Greco’s life and the value of his late works. Van Horn is also interested in using the AI tool to analyze various paintings from the same workshop to identify individual styles and track lesser-known artists. However, he stresses that the AI tool is not intended to replace art historians.
“Tracing people, or a mysterious figure, through different workshops into their own would be incredible,” he says.
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