Arizona, Aug. 20, 200R
Ashok Shaw
NRI press
According to William Hermann of The Arizona Republic,
before George Washington was the "father of our
country," he was reportedly a handsome, strapping
19-year-old surveyor.
NRI (non-resident Indian) NRI Dr. Anshuman Razdan,
Arizona State University researcher and anthropologist
Jeffrey Schwartz went to work, no likeness of the
young man existed.
Dr. Razdan and Schwartz, a University of Pittsburgh
professor have brought together known data about Washington
and fed it into computers in ASU's Partnership for
Research in Spatial Modeling (PRISM) lab. They have
begun to produce lifelike models of Washington, as
a soldier at age 45, and finally as the first U.S.
president taking the oath of office at age 57. advertisement
Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens officials approached
Schwartz several years ago because they hoped he could
help them create lifelike and life-size images of
Washington for a permanent exhibition as part of a
planned $85 million expansion of the first president's
home. They want to exhibit figures of the young surveyor,
the mature soldier and the president.
"We're going to give them likenesses head to
toe," Schwartz said. "And since historical
information is sometimes contradictory - some said
he was about 6 feet tall, and some up to 6 feet 3
- we have much to do."
There are no portraits of the young Washington, and
it wasn't until the future president was middle-aged
that the portraits by Charles Wilson Peale were done.
The famous Gilbert Stuart paintings were done in 1795,
'96 and '97, when Washington was in his 60s.
The most valuable evidence of Washington's true appearance
available to the team is the life mask French sculptor
Jean-Antoine Houdon did in 1785, when Washington was
53. Houdon made a bust from the life mask and then
a sculpture based upon sketches and the mask.
Evidence regarding Washington's true stature consists
partly of garments authenticated as having been worn
by him and not altered. The clothing suggested that
Washington was about 6 feet 2 inches tall.
With this data, Schwartz and Razdan have been feeding
information into PRISM software to "age"
Washington taking him from the known appearance at
age 53 to the speculative appearance at 57. Then,
Schwartz said, "the tough work" began: turning
back the clock to ages 45 and 19.
"That obviously has been the biggest challenge,"
Schwartz said. "But we have material to work
with; we know that Washington began losing his teeth
at age 24, and had lifelong dental problems, until
at age 57 he had one tooth. We know how jaws are affected
by tooth loss and can reconstruct the jaw of the younger
man using that knowledge."
Razdan said that by scanning three-dimensional objects
like the Washington life mask, bust and statue as
well as dentures and reconstructions of his jaw, "we
can use the collected data and do computer modeling"
that will recreate the younger, middle-age and older
man.
From the computer-generated models, artists then
will create the three figures of Washington. Each
of the three models will have a wax head and hands,
because, Schwartz said, "wax is the most lifelike
medium; it's translucent."
The other parts of each figure will be Styrofoam.
The young Washington will be at work as a surveyor,
the soldier will be on horseback and the president
will be depicted taking the oath of office.
Schwartz said the figures will be "the most
realistic depictions of Washington" yet attempted.
Schwartz said he is increasingly satisfied with the
progress of the work, and is "more and more confident"
that the team is arriving at true likenesses of Washington.
He and Razdan hope to have completed their work this
summer.
"But you know how these things work," Schwartz
said. "Someone says to you, 'Can you do this?'
and you say, 'Well, sure.' Then you think about it
and you freak."
