Artist Uses Neural Network Tool to Realistically Depict Ancient Roman Emperors as They Might Have Looked

Lori Dorn
August 26, 2020

Artist Daniel Voshart has created the Roman Emperor Project, a manipulated photo series that focuses on bringing life to images of ancient Roman emperors. Voshart used the neural network tool Artbreeder, Photoshop and historical information to realistically depict each ruler as he might have actually looked at the time. Voshart is selling prints of the series on Etsy.

Using the neural-net tool Artbreeder, Photoshop, and historical references, I have created photoreal portraits of Roman Emperors. For this project, I have transformed, or restored (cracks, noses, ears etc.) almost a thousand images of busts to make the 54 emperors of The Principate (27 BC to 285 AD).

Here is Part One of the Appearance of The Principate series – The Julio-Claudian dynasty

Augustus

Tiberius

Caligula

Claudius

Nero

images by Daniel Voshart

via PetaPixel

Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.