Researchers recreate 3D computerised reconstruction of Raphael's face.

Could this be what Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino - better known internationally as Raphael - actually looked like?

In the year of the 500th anniversary of the death of Raphael (1483-1520), a 3D reconstruction of the artist's face has been generated at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, in collaboration with the Vigamus Foundation and the Raffaello Academy of Urbino.

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The 3D reconstruction, created by the university's Centre of Molecular Anthropology for Ancient DNA Studies, was based on a plaster cast taken of Raphael's skull in 1833 after the artist's remains at the Pantheon were exhumed for study.

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Self-portraits by Raphael and paintings of him by other artists were also consulted in the 3D work, to create a "realistic facial reconstruction" which will be submitted shortly for publication in the Nature journal, reports Italian news agency Adnkronos.