The Holy Shroud of Turin

Abstract

THE accompanying outline is a reduced photographic reproduction of my tracing from Signor Secondo Pia's positive photograph of the Holy Shroud, as referred to by Prof. Mcldola (NATURE, pp. 241–243), and a glance at it is sufficient to show that the original is an inferior (much faded) mediævab painting. The proportions are such as one sees in figures in certain stained-glass windows and in mediaeval illuminations; observe the plane of the elbows and the strange disproportion in the entire arms. One can hardly imagine normal upper and lower arm bones shifting into the ill-drawn shapes into which I have sketched the bones. The radius and ulna of both arms, instead of being much shorter than the humerus, would, if inserted, be longer. If the left humerus of the figure is assumed to be correct in length as shown from A to B in my added black line, then the true length of the ulna should only reach from B to C, and not be half as long again as in the painting. On the other hand, if the length of the right ulna is considered correct as from D to E in my added black line, then the humerus would, in nature, reach from E to F—assuming the relative proportions of humerus and ulna to be 13 and 10½. It is quite within the bounds of possibility to name the painter of this strange figure.