John Deeis a mysterious and controversial figure in the history of science . He was a Welsh polymath who pioneered field of mathematics and science during the 16th hundred liquid ecstasy - opera house of the Tudor dynasty . But , amid his groundbreaking studies of geometry and uranology , Dee ’s study is lace with ideas of the occult , angels , demons and the supernatural .
Using X - ray psychoanalysis on a famed painting of Dee by Victorian artist Henry Gillard Glindoni ( below ) , researcher have spookily reveal the two side of the 16th - century scholar .
The analysis looked beneath the superficial layer of pigment and let on that the picture , which shows Dee performing for Queen Elizabeth I , in the first place depict him standing in a circle of human skull .
" John Dee performing an experimentation before Elizabeth I " by Henry Gillard Glindoni . Image Credit : Wellcome Library
The X - re imaging was commissioned for a barren event at theRoyal College of Physiciansthat will campaign from January 18 to July 29 , 2016 , at the Royal College of Physicians near Regent ’s Park , London . The expo will boast paintings of Dee , along with a first - time look at his hand - written numerical , galactic and alchemic text .
speak tothe Guardian , the exposition ’s conservator Katie Birkwood said : “ He is one of Tudor England ’s most interesting and enigmatical figures and we are explore that without arrive down with a view on whether he is a scholarly person , courtier or magician . He is all of those and more . ”
Why exactly the skull were removed from the last picture is obscure . However , Birkwood suggests it was at the postulation of the somebody who commissioned the painting , perhaps unnerved by the morbid content .
This is n’t the first time that technology has been used to unwrap the secret depths of artwork . Just last month , researchers used a technique called Layer Amplification Method ( LAM)to give away a “ hidden portrait”behind Leonardo da Vinci ’s Mona Lisa .
