OH WELL, no one’s perfect. For centuries, Michelangelo’s sculpture
David has been held up as the ultimate in male physical beauty. But now a
laser scan of his face has revealed the truth: he squints.
“The gaze directions of his eyes actually diverge,” says computer scientist
Marc Levoy of Stanford University in California, who spent a sabbatical making
computerised images of Italian sculptures.
One of the project’s aims was to capture views that Michelangelo never
intended us to see. In David’s case, this includes the full-frontal
view of his face, which is usually hidden by his upraised left hand. Levoy…
