What did the Virgin Mary really look like? There are countless depictions of her throughout the centuries, but none of them is known for certain to be a faithful representation of her physical appearance as she was during her earthly life. Even when she has appeared to visionaries — at Guadalupe, Lourdes, or Fatima, for instance — her appearance seems to adapt to the place and time. The main constant in all cases is that she’s always beautiful. Brazilian artist Átila Soares da Costa Filho wanted to give a possible answer to this question, and has set about trying to reproduce a reasonable likeness of Mary using the Shroud of Turin and computer tools such as AI and digital photo editing. He started with the Shroud of Turin for a logical reason: Jesus was true God, but also true man, born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. Every son bears some resemblance to his mother, and Jesus would seem to be no exception. How much more must Jesus look like his Mother, given that he had no human biological father!
So, the artist reasoned that he could
work backwards from the one “photographic” image of Jesus we have, namely the
image on the Shroud, to Mary’s appearance. But that image shows us Jesus
deformed by suffering and death. He needed an image of Jesus in life. This gave
an image of Mary as an adult, but he also wanted
to show what she might have looked like as an adolescent. He again used AI methods to help
de-age the image so Mary would appear around the age she was when she gave
birth to Jesus. In the teen portrait, Mary is smiling, in the splendor of youth,
the representation of happiness and expectations, of promises and hope for her
life which is just beginning … even more when she discovers she’ll be the
mother of the Messiah. The older portrait has a strong, but solemn appearance; a woman
who is dramatically committed to her mission and to the sacrifice made by her
Redeemer … her son. Her face reflects glory, but also sorrow and total
self-giving.
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