Early 20th Century Image Analysis

In 1900 Yves Delage, an agnostic, a professor of anatomy at the Sorbonne, and director of the French Museum of Natural History, showed Secondo Pia’s photos to his assistant, Paul Vignon. [Antonacci 2000, 5]

From 1900 to 1902 Vignon, Delage, and three other scientists investigated the Shroud. They concluded that the images were not painted but were of a dead human male and were caused by direct and indirect contact between the body and the cloth. The investigators concluded that the Shroud was the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. [Vignon 1970]

Vignon listed 15 distinctive geometrical features in the facial portion of the frontal image. Many of the artistic features are arbitrary; few contribute aesthetically. Nevertheless, many of those features appear in many paintings, mosaics, and coins depicting Jesus Christ from as early as the 5th century.  Examples of such early artwork are shown elsewhere in this compendium. This strongly suggests that much artwork of Jesus was based on the Shroud as a model. See §Artwork

On April 21, 1902, Delage presented the evidence to a crowded audience of the French Academy of Science. He proposed that the academy petition the Shroud’s curator to allow a thorough examination of the Shroud. [Antonacci 2000, 5]

Immediately, skeptics nixed his proposal and the secretary of the academy excised from the journal the reasons why Delage concluded that the Shroud was that of Jesus. [Antonacci 2000, 6]

A flurry of articles and publications followed. Half supporting Delage and Vignon; half skeptical. With the debate unsettled, all efforts to seriously examine the Shroud thoroughly and scientifically faded for 75 years. [Antonacci 2000, 6]