The Shroud of Turin is the most venerated and controversial religious icon in the world. It has been at the centre of a quest for truth since the turn of the 20th century if not longer, its origin the subject of intense debate among historians and scientists. 

The Shroud has also stood as a cardinal model for the representation of Jesus Christ in art for millennia. Most recently as the subject of a series of art works by leading Italian artist Veronica Piraccini, whose work will be exhibited later this year at SpACE@Collins gallery in Melbourne.

What is the Shroud of Turin?

A shroud is a large linen cloth used for wrapping a dead body in preparation for burial. What is called the Shroud of Turin is therefore a particular burial cloth located in the Italian city of Turin that many of the Christian faith believe was used to wrap the body of Jesus of Nazareth after his death by crucifixion. It was brought over from France by the Royal House of Savoy in 1578 and has been housed at Turin’s Cathedral of St John the Baptist ever since. The phenomenal aspect of the Shroud is that it contains a vague image of a crucified man which corresponds exactly to how Jesus was crucified as described in the Gospel According to John of the New Testament Bible.

Why the Controversy?

While many accept the Shroud to be the authentic burial cloth of Jesus dating from 33 AD, the other most common belief is that, based on historical and scientific research, the Shroud of Turin is a forgery made in northern France after 1260 AD. There is scant historical evidence of the Shroud’s existence prior to this date. Many historians contend that it was in the possession of a French Knight, Geoffroi de Charny from 1353, and was put on display in the French town of Lirey in 1356, the same year of de Charny’s death at the battle of Poitiers. 

The controversy began in 1390 when the Bishop of Lirey, Pierre d’Arcis, wrote to Pope Clement VII claiming that an artist had confessed to making a forgery. But this claim has never dissuaded the faithful from believing that the Shroud is the authentic burial cloth of Jesus Christ. Although modern scientific techniques, especially carbon-14 dating, applied to samples of the cloth determined that the age of Shroud falls within dates closely corresponding to its first documented appearance in Lirey in 1353, other scientific analyses have found no artificial pigments, paints, dyes or stains, or even scorch marks, to verify that it is indeed a forgery. 

Regardless of whether is it or isn’t the actual burial cloth of Jesus Christ, and though the image is anatomically correct, suggesting that it is the result of contact with a human corpse, how the image of a naked crucified man was produced on the Shroud remains a mystery.

The Holy Shroud as Iconography

To this day modern science has been unable to dismiss the Shroud as a forgery or proved that it is authentic. Similarly the Vatican has neither officially denied nor claimed the Shroud to be physical proof of the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

But there is another truth that exists in between—the truth of art. In 4th century Rome, Christians were permitted freedom of worship because Constantine the Great, who reigned between 306 and 337 AD, became the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. Christians were able to create art that depicted Jesus their Lord and Savior without fear of persecution. 

The remarkable aspect of ancient paintings and other works of art is the uncanny resemblance to the face of the crucified man impressed upon the Shroud. This suggests that the Shroud must have been in existence by about the 4th century. The language of art is often more precise than mathematics and visibly unambiguous, thus over the centuries, from the time of Constantine I right up until today, the Holy Shroud has been a inspiring model for the visual representation of Jesus Christ. 

At the Intersection of Faith, Science and Art

On 28 May 1898, an amateur photographer by the name of Seconda Pia took the first ever photograph of the Shroud of Turin, and when developing the negative discovered to his amazement that it showed a higher resolution image of a man’s face. For Pia this meant the Shroud could not be a painting since artists cannot accurately paint a negative image. His discovery initiated the field of modern sindonology, the formal study of the Shroud of Turin.

The remarkable achievement of the artwork by Veronica Piraccini is that it continues in the same spirit as Pia’s—her work stands at the intersection of faith, science and art. In April 2012, she received a life-size photographic scan of the Shroud of Turin, delivered to her studio in Rome by Capuchin Monks. It was the culmination of a dream come true for this artist, who has always been attracted by the Shroud of Turin in the same way that it has fascinated theologians, historians, scientists and countless other artists throughout the ages.

Piraccini began a series of artworks that would combine ancient and innovative techniques. She set to work on first producing a mirror image of the impression of the crucified man, one that would faithfully reflect the sanctity of the relic. Using pastels on transparent paper, she traced precisely what was on the photographic scan, then reversed the paper and reproduced the image on canvas. This ‘mirroring’ process is similar to a method that goes back to the 6th century, which was applied to religious icons in order to retain the sacredness of the original.

From this was born Piraccini’s finest achievement, From the Imprint Jesus. Back in the 1980s, she discovered new pigments that she calls ‘imperceptible’ — that is, invisible to the naked eye in natural light but are made visible only when a black light (or ultraviolet light) is cast on to the canvas. She applied a blue pigment to highlight the blows and bruises inflicted on the body of ‘Jesus’ and a red pigment to highlight the wounds caused by the crown of thorns on the head, the nails on the hands and feet, and the lance in the side of his body. Thanks to the black light, her life-size painting of a crucified man suddenly takes spectacular form in gorgeous irisdescent colours. 

Piraccini’s works, which have been exhibited in countless galleries across Italy and abroad since 2013, are described as a miracle of art and alchemy, arousing great emotional responses from its viewers and always re-igniting the age-old controversy surrounding the Shroud of Turin.

Nixora Group and the Global Association of International Artists (GAIA) will host a ten-day exhibition titled The Holy Shroud at Melbourne’s prestigious SpACE@Collins gallery from 15 to 24 November 2019. 

Nixora Group is a consulting firm that supports financial institutions and large corporations with state-of-the-art risk management, analytics and data intelligence services.

GAIA – Global Association of International Artists is a not-for-profit organisation that supports the international exchange of figurative artists and promotes social cohesion.

都灵的裹尸布是世界上既有神圣感，但也是极具争议的宗教标志。如非更长时期，自20世纪之交，裹尸布持续处于作为探寻真理的中心，所谓的起源更是历史学家和科学家展开激烈辩论的主题。

千年来，裹尸布在艺术领域作为耶稣基督的模型象征。最近，闻名的意大利艺术家Veronica Piraccini以此创作一系列艺术作品，她的杰作将于今年稍后在墨尔本的SpACE@Collins艺术画廊展出。

都灵裹尸布是什么?
裹尸布是为了准备下葬而用来包裹尸体的大块亚麻质地布料。因此，都灵裹尸布是意大利都灵市使用的一种特殊埋葬布，许多基督信仰者认为，这是用于包裹被钉死在十字架的拿撒勒人耶稣的身体。这是1578年由萨沃伊王室从法国带过来的，此后一直被安置在都灵的施洗者圣约翰大教堂。裹尸布的神奇现象在于隐含了一具男性人体钉在十字架的模糊形象，这与新约圣经约翰福音中描述的耶稣被钉在十字架上的形象完全一致。

为何出现争议?
尽管许多人认为这块裹尸布是公元33年耶稣的葬布真迹，但另一个最普遍的看法是：根据历史和科学研究查证，都灵裹尸布是公元1260年后法国北部制作的伪造品。在此之前，几乎没有相关裹尸布存在过的历史依据。很多历史学家表示，它是由一位法国骑士Geoffroi de Charny于1353年拥有的，并于1356年在法国的Lirey市展出，同年这位骑士在普瓦捷斯战役中阵亡。

而这场争论始于1390年，当时Lirey的主教Pierre d ‘Arcis写信给教皇Pope Clement VII，声称一位艺术家承认伪造艺术品。不过，这些说法从未制止信徒们对裹尸布是耶稣基督葬礼用布的事实深信不疑。即使透过现代科学技术的鉴定，尤其是将碳-14法测定应用于布料以确定样本的年限，裹尸布对应时间线为1353年，非常切合首次出现在Lirey的文件记录时间。但其他科学分析未有发现人工颜料、油漆、染料或污渍，甚至烧焦痕迹，所以无法验证它是伪造的。

另外，不管是否能够证实这是耶稣基督的埋葬布，但是图像在解剖学上是正确合理的，也被认为是一具尸体接触的鉴定结果，可是，被钉在十字架上的人体形象是如何在裹尸布上显现，至今仍是一团迷雾。

图像呈现神圣裹尸布
至今，现代科学无法将裹尸布以伪造品看待，却也不能证明它是真品。同样的，梵蒂冈既没有正式做出否认，也没办法提出裹尸布是耶稣基督受难、死亡和复活的物理证据。

其实，悬挂在这两者之间的真相还有一个，那就是-艺术的真理。在罗马的第四世纪，基督徒允许自由的宗教崇拜，这是因为公元306年至337年，当时在位的君士坦丁大帝成为第一位皈依基督教的罗马皇帝。所有的基督徒能够抛开被打压迫害的顾虑，尽情地创作和描绘救主耶稣基督的艺术作品。

古代绘画和艺术作品的显著特点是与裹尸布上被钉在十字架上的人体面貌拥有惊人相似点。这表明裹尸布早存在于公元4世纪。艺术语言往往比数学更精确，并且明显无误，因此，从君士坦丁一世到今日数个世纪以来，神圣裹尸布一直作为耶稣基督视觉显现的鼓舞人心之模型。

信仰，科学和艺术交汇点
1898年5月28日，一位名叫Seconda Pia的业余摄影师拍摄了都灵裹尸布的第一张照片，当观看底片时，他惊奇地发现显出一张男性轮廓面貌的高分辨率图像。对他而言，这意味着裹尸布不可能是一幅画，因为艺术家无法准确地描绘出底片图像。这项探索触发了现代人类学领域针对都灵裹尸布展开铺天盖地的正式研究。

而艺术家Veronica Piraccini取得了令人瞩目的成就，这是因为继承了Pia的精神-她的艺术作品竖立在信仰，科学和艺术的交汇点上。2012年4月，她接到了真人一般尺寸的都灵裹尸布摄影扫描版，由圣芳济教会修士送到她位于罗马的工作室。对于艺术家来说，这彷如梦寐以求的愿望实践，Piraccini一直被都灵裹尸布所深深吸引，就像其他神学家、历史学家，科学家和无数艺术家一样。

Piraccini就此开展一系列将古代和创新技术相结合的心血作品。她开始着手制作一个钉在十字架上的男性人体形象的镜像效果，忠实反映文物神圣性的人。在透明纸上使用粉彩笔，她细致追踪描绘摄影扫描版上的内容，然后将纸张翻转并在画布上再现图像。这种“镜像”还原过程可追溯至公元6世纪的手法，应用于宗教图标以保留原始的神圣性。

她最杰出的成果，就是从这个印记中诞生的耶稣。早在20世纪80年代，她就发现了一种称为“无法察觉”的新颜料，这种颜料在自然光下肉眼看不见且无痕迹，但只要有一束黑光(或紫外线光束)投射到画布上时才会显现出来。她用蓝色颜料突出“耶稣”身上的击打和瘀伤，红色颜料用在“耶稣”头顶的荆棘冠、手脚上的钉子和身体侧面因长矛造成的伤口上。而多亏那盏黑光灯，她的真人一般大小的作品–被钉死在十字架上的男性人体，瞬间以绚丽夺目的晕彩虹色惊人形式绽放。

Piraccini的作品自2013年以来在意大利国内外参展无数，被誉为艺术和炼金术并肩的奇迹，激起观众巨大的情感反响，并重新点燃围绕都灵裹尸布的由来已久的争议火苗。

Nixora Group和全球国际艺术家协会(Global Association of International Artists – GAIA) 将于2019年11月15日至24日在墨尔本著名的 SpACE@
Collins画廊举办为期10天的 “神圣裹尸布-The Holy Shroud”展览会。

作为一家专业咨询公司，Nixora Group为金融机构和大型企业提供最领先的风险管理、分析和数据情报服务。

至于GAIA-全球国际艺术家协会则是一家非营利组织，全力支持具象征性艺术家的国际交流，促进社会凝聚力。

至于他们对生活的看法？