Girl with a Pearl Earring

[ornotna]

Like you've never seen before.

https://www.micro-pano.com/pearl/index.html

10-Billion-Pixel Scan of ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ Reveals Incredible High-Definition Details

Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring has fascinated art lovers for centuries. Those who have been lucky enough to admire the masterpiece where it resides at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague will know just how incredible it really is. However, now anyone can admire the painting’s details up close, thanks to Emilien Leonhardt and Vincent Sabatier from Hirox 3D Digital Microscopy. They scanned Girl with a Pearl Earring using specialized equipment that captured it in ultra-high definition. You can now see every crack and blob of paint down to the level of 4.4-microns per pixel.

The full scan of the painting was made with the Hirox 3D Digital Microscope RH-2000 at the Mauritshuis. Overnight, 9,100 photos were captured and stitched together to create one huge, 10-billion-pixel panorama image. Leonhardt and Sabatier also targeted 10 key areas of the painting in even higher resolution (1 pixel equaled 1.1 microns) to create 3D maps. The resulting images show the topography of the artwork, revealing the raised areas where Vermeer applied the most paint.

The scan is so detailed, that it also allows historians to identify the pigments Vermeer used. “It’s surprising how much high-quality ultramarine Vermeer used in the girl’s headscarf,” Mauritshuis conservator and project leader Abbie Vandivere says. “This blue pigment was more valuable than gold in the 17th century.”

https://mymodernmet.com/10-billion-pixel-panorama-girl-with-a-pearl-earring/

[lunatica]

1. I can see using this method for security and to spot forgeries

but I have my doubts about using it for anything else. If you’re enlarging paintings to see what even the artists weren’t able to see when they applied the paint then it seems almost voyeuristic.

As an artist many times I’ll look closely at original paintings in order to see how the artist did it. Why would anyone want more than that?

It’s interesting, but other than that?

[ornotna]

2. I agree

It takes away from the beauty of this magnificent piece of artwork. I just thought it was interesting for the science of it.

Maybe I should have posted it there. Ah well, the science lovers can come here and see some art as well.

[lunatica]

7. I'm glad you posted it here

It’s fascinating technology. I like futuristic things very much. I’ve been a science fiction fan since my teens so I think about societal changes when things like this come up. Thanks!

[Lefta Dissenter]

3. Very cool!

Thanks!

[rainy]

4. Fascinating!

[BigmanPigman]

5. When I was in art school we dreaded assignments

that called for red pigment. It was super expensive compared to other hues.

[PirateRo]

6. Computational photography

Google gigapixel camera, visit gigapixel.com.

[ornotna]

10. Found the google camera, thanks

https://artsandculture.google.com/project/art-camera

And they come with nice explanations.

https://artsandculture.google.com/story/girl-with-a-pearl-earring/bgICYYizzwQHKQ

[PirateRo]

11. Oh, I'm glad you found these :)

There was a project a few years back where the built a 3D model of the Roman coliseum using tourist digital photos from flickr and other sites. They not only created the model, they could map where the photographer was in the location and the approximate height of the camera above the ground.

When you see a Hubble image, that 2D photo is only a portion of the data. The actual photo lets you navigate the space as if you were in a spaceship. Fantastic engineering.

[MFM008]

8. you see all the dirt and debris

on the painting, imagine the brilliance of all the paintings not long after they were painted.........

[ornotna]

9. Yes

We can be art restorers and fix that up with a little 409.

It must have been magnificent back then, it's still beautiful even now.