Art Meets ScienceCan A.I. Resurrect a Delacroix Mural That Was Destroyed in a Fire More Than 150 Years Ago?A new project called Digital Delacroix is training cutting-edge technology on the French painters style to unravel the lost artworks secrets Delacroix mural at the Palais Bourbon, home to the French National Assembly Sorbonne UniversityIn the final days of theParis Commune of 1871, a radicalexperiment in self-governance and insurrection that started after the nations humiliatingmilitary loss to Prussia, the Communards realized that their cause had gone up in flames.The French Army, initially pushed out of the city by the Communards, returned to Paris with a vengeance. In the mayhem, the Communards set fire to the city, including theTuileries Palace, thePalais de Justice and theHtel de Ville, which served as the city hall of Paris and the seat of the Communard government.Eventually, the army retook Paris, and the stately buildings were reconstructed. But the archives and art within the Htel de Ville were forever lost. Among the most devastating losses were a series of allegorical murals by theRomantic painterEugne Delacroix.At their center was Peace Descends to Earth, a vivid panel that 19th-century French criticThophile Gautier described as the earth weeping, raising her eyes to heaven to plead for an end to her sorrows, per theNew York Times Frank Rose.Napoleon III gave toQueen Victoria in 1855.Now, researchers are hoping to unravel the murals secrets. Virtually recreating Peace Descends to Earth with the help ofartificial intelligence is among the goals ofDigital Delacroix, an ambitious project led by Barthlmy Jobert, an art historian at Sorbonne University in Paris. The Htel de Ville after the fires of 1871 Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsAs Jobert sees it, well-trained A.I. can help infer links between Delacroixs existing studies for the mural and his distinctive style.We wont give you an exact reproduction of the room as it was. Thats impossible, Jobert tells the Times. But we will give you what it could have been.Schmidt Sciences, a philanthropic venture by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife Wendy, announced this week that Digital Delacroix was the first recipient of its Humanities and A.I. Virtual Institute (HAVI) grants. The funding is in the high six figures, according to the Times. A sketch forPeace Descends to Earthcreated in 1852 Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsWe study humanities for much the same reason we study science: to gain knowledge of our world and our role within it, Wendy Schmidt says in astatement. She explains that the initiative seeks out projects that marry emerging technologies with deeply intertwined human histories and cultures.Joberts project fits the bill. In addition to the mural reconstruction, Digital Delacroix also promises to digitize some 2,500 of Delacroixs letters and make murals painted at thePalais Bourbon and thePalais du Luxembourghome to the French National Assembly and Senate, respectivelymore accessible to the public.Because letter digitization is a relatively straightforward process, the first order of business is to take high-resolution photos of the murals and, using photogrammetry, build virtual rooms that visitors can tour. A 3D rendering of a Delacroix mural at the Chapel of the Holy Angels at Saint-Sulpice Church in Paris Sorbonne UniversityWith these high-quality photos, Jobert and his team can then begin their secondary goal: determining which sections of the murals were painted by Delacroix himself and which were made by his assistants.This question of multiple authorship is a really tricky one,Brent Seales, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky and the director of HAVI, tells the Times.Seales recently led the A.I.-assisted effort todecode 2,000-year-old scrolls charred by Mount Vesuvius eruption. Now, he hopes that A.I. will be able to discern faint stylistic differences between Delacroix and other artists.Evidence of authorship is subtle and individualizeda constellation of small things tied to the specific behavior and training of a unique person, Seales tellsArtnets Jo Lawson-Tancred. While individual things might be a weak indicator, like a stroke style or a color selection, the aggregation of a number of these things makes for a unique signature.Technology that can identify different brushstrokes is experimental. Instead of generative A.I. like ChatGPT, which has advanced byleaps and bounds since its launch in 2022, this phase of the Digital Delacroix project relies onanalytical A.I.Progress in that field is slower. Still, We think theres a high possibility it will work, Xavier Fresquet, deputy director of theSorbonne Center for Artificial Intelligence, tells the Times.Eventually, the researchers hope that the A.I. will become a Delacroix expert, able to instantly pick out his brushstrokes from existing works and subsequently determine how the painter might have crafted the murals in the Htel de Ville.A.I. is a new lens through which we can view master works, Seales tells Artnet. Anything that resurrects our appreciation of such a significant artist is a great reminder of the genius of the past and the promise of the future.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.