Explore this 10 billion pixel scan of Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring

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Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/22/explore-this-10-billion-pixel-scan-of-vermeers-girl-with-a-pearl-earring.html

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Thank you, really impressive to see the application of tiny highlights.

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That reminds me of a great Dutch TV programme where a team of art historians and artists recreate famous paintings (down to a copy of the frame) and learn new insights about them. It’s really fun if you’re into that kind of thing (and you speak Dutch, I suppose, although I have watched it in German translation). The Girl with the Pearl Earring was one of the paintings and they make a pretty good case that it isn’t actually pearl the earring is made off.

(For those that speak German: it’s available in the 3sat Mediathek under “Das Geheimnis der Meister”)

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This resolution is insane. It seems like this is almost too high a resolution for any practical application (with current technology and research questions)

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Speaking of frames

Did you check out the 3d maps too? Very impressive.

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Thanks for the link to the short National Gallery documentary. Fascinating and brilliant work that one normally doesn’t even consider.

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So I’m the guy who gets to be married to the woman in the video (and who was in that episode of Geheim van de Meester). If you’re looking for more information on the technical investigation - she led the project - she wrote up a blog on all the findings here: https://www.mauritshuis.nl/en/explore/restoration-and-research/girl-with-a-blog/

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All I know is that if you zoom in on her eyes, she dies. The light goes out. That’s not what I come to Vermeer for.

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I highly recommend “Tim’s Vermeer” about a non-painter that tries to figure out and and replicate Vermeer’s method/technique.

Vermeer may have used an elaborate (at the time) optics system to create his paintings; it’s somewhat ironic that his paintings are now being studied with elaborate high-resolution optical systems.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim's_Vermeer

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I really liked that documentary

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Thank you (and your wife), I enjoyed working my way through that blog.

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