An analysis and synthesis of portraits of A S Pushkin are used to illustrate the problem of establishing the most probable facial features based on pictorial and verbal portraits of a person. This is an example of an ill-posed inverse problem. The informative anthropometric parameters were drawn from artistic portraits. We carried out a comparison in the space formed of these parameters, taking into account the weight coefficients obtained by analyzing verbal portraits, the artists’ competence, and the methods they used. Twelve archive pictorial portraits were employed to produce new portraits using an ’identikit’ technique whereby elements from different images are combined, and the ’morphing’ — a superposition of portraits and elements of portraits on one another. Using expert evaluations accounting for the deviation of the anthropometric parameters from the mean values and verbal portraits, three most probable portraits of A S Pushkin were selected, showing the countenance of the poet at different stages of his life.

PACS: 42.30.−d, 89.70.+c, 89.80.+h, 89.90.+n (all) DOI: 10.1070/PU1999v042n05ABEH000560 URL: https://ufn.ru/en/articles/1999/5/c/ 000080958700003 Citation: Ivanitskii G R, Deev A A "''For what does thine sanguine divine produce my African profile?''" Phys. Usp. 42 453–468 (1999) BibTexBibNote ® (generic)BibNote ® (RIS)MedlineRefWorks Оригинал: Иваницкий Г Р, Деев А А «"Зачем твой дивный карандаш рисует мой арапский профиль?’» УФН 169 529–544 (1999); DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.0169.199905d.0529