The famous Turin Shroud has been regarded by generations of believers as the face of crucified Jesus who was wrapped in it. But, now a new

study has claimed that painter-inventor Leonardo da Vinci faked it.

According to the study, the Renaissance artist created the artefact by using pioneering photographic techniques and a sculpture of his own head—in fact, it suggests the image on the relic is da Vinci’s face which could have been projected onto the cloth, The Daily Telegraph reported.

US graphic artist Lillian Schwartz of School of Visual Arts in New York, who came to prominence in the 1980s when she matched the face of the Mona Lisa to a Leonardo self-portrait, used computer scans to show that the face on the Shroud has the same dimensions as that of da Vinci.

“It matched. I’m excited about this. There is no doubt in my mind that the proportions that Leonardo wrote about were used in creating this Shroud’s face,” he was quoted as saying.

The claims are made in a TV documentary that describes how da Vinci could have scorched his facial features on to the linen using a sculpture of his and face and a camera obscura—an early photographic device. The programme says the fabric could have been hung over a frame in a blacked-out room and coated with silver sulphate, a substance readily available in 15th century Italy which would have made it light-sensitive.

When the sun’s rays passed through a lens in one of the walls, da Vinci’s facial shape and features would have been projected on to the material, creating a permanent image.