Bonnie Prince Charlie's head recreated in 'most realistic' depiction yet
Jacobite leader Bonnie Prince Charlie's face as a young man has been recreated using death masks.
The new reconstruction, created by a team the University of Dundee's Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification, shows him as he would have looked during the Jacobite rising of 1745.
For the project, death masks of the prince were photographed and mapped by researchers. They then built 3D models with state-of-the-art software, allowing the prince to be de-aged from the 67 years old he was at the time of his death. The project was led by Barbora Veselá, a masters student.
"I have looked at previous reconstructions of historical figures and was interested as to how these could be done differently," said Barbora. "I wanted to create an image of what he would have looked like during the Jacobite rising. "
Despite some initial successes on the battlefield, the then 24-year-old's army was defeated by government forces at the Battle of Culloden, near Inverness, in April 1746 and he spent the next five months as a hunted man before eventually fleeing to France. He spent the rest of his life on the continent and died in Palazzo Muti, Rome, at the age of 67.
Following his death, a cast of the Prince's face was taken, as was common for notable figures at the time. The Dundee team examined copies of two these masks, creating a composite over several months. Barbora took photographs from all around the masks and then utilised photogrammetry software to establish a 3D model. In total, she estimates that almost 500 images have been taken of both masks as part of the recreation process.
The recreation will feature as part of the University of Dundee's annual Masters Show. The exhibition is open to the public from Saturday 19 August to Sunday 27 August.
