Visit the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague, the Netherlands and you will have the opportunity to see Johannes Vermeer’s painting, “Girl with Pearl Earrings”, from a few meters away – depending on the crowds around the famous piece. Or you can explore this website which provides access to a massif 10 billion pixel scan of painting in more detail than the human eye could ever see in person.
The scan was created last year by Hirox Europe (a company that produces digital microscopes) at a resolution of 93,205 x 108,565 pixels, which amounts to 10,118,800,825 microscopic snapshots of the painting, each covering an area of only 4.4 microns. As with most gigapixel images, the digital copy of “The Girl with the Pearl Earrings” was created by assembling a collection of photographs, all focusing on different areas of the painting, which in this case amounted to 91,000 individual photos taken in one night. Using custom software developed by Hirox, assembling all those photos into a single image was an automatic process.
The scan provides an unprecedented look at painting in more detail than any art fan would be interested in. But more importantly, it gives art historians and conservationists a better look at the condition of the painting’s surface, as well as the condition of previous restorations, which will help inform and guide future restoration and conservation attempts.
However, Hirox’s digital microscope was not pushed to its maximum capabilities. In addition to scanning the entire array, the team created scans with even higher resolutions of 10 specific areas in which each pixel represented only a 1.1 micron wire of the entire piece. Not only were high-resolution fragments of the painting created during this additional scanning process, but also a 3D representation of its surface, revealing how small splinters of paint deformed and rippled at the edges over time. .
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It may seem obsessive, but understanding what happens to famous works of art such as “The Girl with a Pearl Earring” over time (painting is now 355 years old at this time) on an almost microscopic level. it is a crucial part of ensuring that in other years, future generations will be able to enjoy the original. But if I can’t, at least there’s a flawless digital copy now.