Image Details

Shroud of Turin. Front and back images of a man bearing the marks of a crucifixion appear faintly on this natural color photograph of the shroud. The darkest brown lines, approximate mirror images along the top and bottom of the length of the shroud, are scorch marks from a fire that occurred in 1532, when the shroud lay folded in reliquary. The triangular and U-shaped areas along the scorch marks are patches in the linen. Between the two rows of scorch marks we see the head-to-head image of a man—on the right, face up, with his hands crossed over his genitals and on the left face down.