I didn’t think the first work by Cicero Moraes posted here would be a canine when I started this blog, as most of his work is on hominid reconstructions. Here, we have a Mesolithic dog from the Muge shell midden in Portugal, aged roughly 7600 years, and a rather handsome beast at that, if I may say so.
Cicero’s style, or rather his technique, is somewhat atypical for forensic artists. Most rely on databases and studies of tissue depth measurement averages to build up their reconstructions from the deepest layer, but, if I’m not misunderstanding, Cicero prefers to use CT scans of extant analogues that contain both flesh and bone to map to the skull of its postmortem counterpart and adjust it manually from there.
The results here speak for themselves, I’d say. While there may be flaws to this method, it still helps one get a general sense of the anatomy. My eye for canines is not the most discerning, but it strikes me as a powerful and capable creature as it is.
I must say, I really do appreciate the inclusion of a video representing each step of his process, with full rotations, as there’s only so much one can discern from a single image from a single angle. Be sure to check out more of Cicero’s work on his website here, if you’re curious. Try not to let the language barrier stop you, if it’s an issue.
—The Curator
Species: Canis lupus familiaris
Specimens: Muge Dog
Artist: Cicero Moraes
Source: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/10/4867
The Early Man Gallery 