Saint Gemma in living color
Given the time period of Gemma's life (1878-1903), none of the 5 authentic photographs of her are in color, as obviously this technology was not available at that time. However, on this website and elsewhere there have been a few attempts to colorize them, however these attempts did not seem to capture the correct hair and eye color as described in Padre Enrico Zoffoli's hagigography on Saint Gemma. In his book, "La Povera Gemma" Padre Zoffoli gives the following description of Gemma:
"...She had a rosy complexion, her face shape was more round than oval , and her eyes were sky blue, (p.420) she had well defined lips and jaw, straight nose, large forehead and chestnut color hair in normal amount irregularly parted in the front and gently gathered behind the head. Habitually Gemma had a smile on her lips and her countenance was ever infused by a"veiled melancholy" that revealed the misfortunes and the passions of the young lady's soul. However, this internal sadness was affable and was revealed by her ever lowered eyes and her gaze which was irresistibly attracted and immersed in the mystery of Christ. The five authentic pictures reveal and confirm these descriptions about her....."
It is the "chestnut hair" and "sky blue" eyes that up until now seemed to have escaped the attempts that I have seen at colorizing the official photos. However, Mike from California, a friend in St Gemma, has used his talents and seems to have done quite a good job at bringing lively and true colors into one of the photos (above). I would like to thank him for his work and may God bless him for his efforts.
***Note: You can click on the photo to enlarge it (you can do this with all the photos on this website).
For those interested, I am also attaching to this article some of the other colorized Saint Gemma photos.
The full description of St Gemma can be found here:
http://www.stgemmagalgani.com/2009/02/gemma-was-beautiful.html
"My Jesus, have You become so poor as to want me? And even if You were really so poor, how could I help You? Here I am, my Lord; my body is a handful of dust, yet my Lord makes my soul so great! Oh my soul, praise the passionate love of Jesus, who moved by pity
for my misery, offers me every means to reach His love!" -St Gemma Galgani
Given the time period of Gemma's life (1878-1903), none of the 5 authentic photographs of her are in color, as obviously this technology was not available at that time. However, on this website and elsewhere there have been a few attempts to colorize them, however these attempts did not seem to capture the correct hair and eye color as described in Padre Enrico Zoffoli's hagigography on Saint Gemma. In his book, "La Povera Gemma" Padre Zoffoli gives the following description of Gemma:
"...She had a rosy complexion, her face shape was more round than oval , and her eyes were sky blue, (p.420) she had well defined lips and jaw, straight nose, large forehead and chestnut color hair in normal amount irregularly parted in the front and gently gathered behind the head. Habitually Gemma had a smile on her lips and her countenance was ever infused by a"veiled melancholy" that revealed the misfortunes and the passions of the young lady's soul. However, this internal sadness was affable and was revealed by her ever lowered eyes and her gaze which was irresistibly attracted and immersed in the mystery of Christ. The five authentic pictures reveal and confirm these descriptions about her....."
It is the "chestnut hair" and "sky blue" eyes that up until now seemed to have escaped the attempts that I have seen at colorizing the official photos. However, Mike from California, a friend in St Gemma, has used his talents and seems to have done quite a good job at bringing lively and true colors into one of the photos (above). I would like to thank him for his work and may God bless him for his efforts.***Note: You can click on the photo to enlarge it (you can do this with all the photos on this website).
For those interested, I am also attaching to this article some of the other colorized Saint Gemma photos.
The full description of St Gemma can be found here:
http://www.stgemmagalgani.com/2009/02/gemma-was-beautiful.html
"My Jesus, have You become so poor as to want me? And even if You were really so poor, how could I help You? Here I am, my Lord; my body is a handful of dust, yet my Lord makes my soul so great! Oh my soul, praise the passionate love of Jesus, who moved by pity
for my misery, offers me every means to reach His love!" -St Gemma Galgani
4 comments:
The man who coloured this photograph sure did a wonderful job!! It brings St. Gemma a little closer to us!
The eyes are a bit too blue for an Italian.
I like the colourized picture of St. Gemma with the green backround. I think that one is very nice, indeed.
Signed,
Respectfully,
Todd+
Hi Lene, Fran and Father Todd!
Thank you all for your comments.
I think all of these color pictures are nice, each in their own ways. Surely it is really hard to capture her eye color especially. I imagine the "sky blue" that is referred to in Padre Zoffoli's description is probably more of a greyish-blue, that is, not a deep-blue.
Thank you all for your comments!
-Glenn Dallaire
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