Banderia Prutenorum – conservation enquiry. An attempt at using computer image analysis to recreate the missing miniature in the manuscript

Banderia Prutenorum is a 15th-century parchment code containing images of 56 Teutonic Knights’ and Prussian standards, some of them the trophies in the battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg) in July 1410, which later hung in Wawel Cathedral. The manuscript was created on the initiative of the great historian Jan Długosz, the founder and the author of the text part of the work. He commissioned the Kraków-based painter Stanisław Durink to paint the pictures. Between 1548 and 1731, the leaf on which Madonna with Child, adorning the banner of the Livonian Master was depicted, was cut out of the last of the five quires. The banner captured in the battle of Nakło was two-sided: on one side it was adorned with the image of Madonna and on the other side the image of St Maurice. Durink painted the images on separate sheets of parchment. In the course of the studies of the manuscript, some poorly visible smudges were noticed which may have been reflections of a small fragment of Madonna’s mantle. Computer analysis of the image of this reflection revealed the image of Madonna and thus allowed for an attempt of the virtual reconstruction of the miniature which then could be compared with images of this picture known only from reproductions. As a result of the computer analysis an image showing a surprising number of details compared to the image seen through the naked eye was revealed.
 

Banderia Prutenorum – conservation enquiry. An attempt at using computer image analysis to recreate the missing miniature in the manuscript

Banderia Prutenorum is a 15th-century parchment code containing images of 56 Teutonic Knights’ and Prussian standards, some of them the trophies in the battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg) in July 1410, which later hung in Wawel Cathedral. The manuscript was created on the initiative of the great historian Jan Długosz, the founder and the author of the text part of the work. He commissioned the Kraków-based painter Stanisław Durink to paint the pictures. Between 1548 and 1731, the leaf on which Madonna with Child, adorning the banner of the Livonian Master was depicted, was cut out of the last of the five quires. The banner captured in the battle of Nakło was two-sided: on one side it was adorned with the image of Madonna and on the other side the image of St Maurice. Durink painted the images on separate sheets of parchment. In the course of the studies of the manuscript, some poorly visible smudges were noticed which may have been reflections of a small fragment of Madonna’s mantle. Computer analysis of the image of this reflection revealed the image of Madonna and thus allowed for an attempt of the virtual reconstruction of the miniature which then could be compared with images of this picture known only from reproductions. As a result of the computer analysis an image showing a surprising number of details compared to the image seen through the naked eye was revealed.