The Holy Face has been an object of historical research by many scholars - we particularly remember A. Calcagnino (beginning of XVIIth century) but the first really "scientific" study of the relic has been recently conducted on by Prof. Colette Dufour (of the University of Genoa) with the technical advice of Prof. Pico Cellini (from Rome) who has "disassembled" the Object so that, with the further help of X Rays and Tomography, it has been possible to observe and study the single "pieces" of which it is composed.

   First it has been observed that the Image is an "egg" tempera - in conformity with the "portraits" of the Roman Imperial Age, and (before that) of the Egyptian Age.
The image is slightly retouched here and there, as the tomography shows. Under the tempera there is a linen, whose borders can be clearly seen: it might be the linen of which the tradition speaks: that is to say, Jesus impressed the image of His Face on the linen on which the painter Anania, sent by the king Abgar of Edessa, had tried in vain to portray Jesus.
There is, however, another tradition, according to which the painter Anania himself painted the portrait of Jesus: the one we are admiring nowadays.

   The Linen is stuck on a very old cedar board which was mounted (at the time when the Holy Face was in Constantinople) in a larger wooden support, on which a very precious filigree decoration was inserted. The smaller support, the original one, keeps the traces of an older design, around the Face of Christ, that is, a continuous series of tiny pearls of which you can still see the holes in which they were inserted: it is another evident proof of the antiquity of the Object.

   As we said before, the very precious decoration in filigree of gold and silver was made in Constantinople, with a series of ten embossed tiles which show the origin of the Holy Face, together with some important episodes of its history, until its translation to Constantinople. It is a true masterpiece of byzantine jewellery which essentially distinguishes our Relic from all other reproductions of the Holy Face of Edessa.

   Another very precious element, in the study above mentioned, is represented by the fragments of ancient sassanide (persian) and fatimid (arabian) cloths which have been found stuck to the posterior part of the wooden support: this material dates back to the centuries before the year one thousand.
They are "Brandoms" that is "Relics through contact": they had probably wrapped the Relic. In the XVth century another precious Ligurian cloth was stuck on them, woven with silver threads, representing a pomegranate.

   In Genoa, at the beginning of the XVIIth century, the Holy Face was also endowed with a precious silver Reliquary where the Relic is being kept. At the beginning of XVIIIth century the silver Reliquary was enriched with a series of precious stones, set in a gold and silver support, which provides a framework.
Around the cult of the Holy Face, the Church of St. Bertholomew has been trasformed and adorned during the centuries.