For the past hour, I’ve been avoiding work by flipping through this incredible high-resolution scan of Johannes Vermeer’s iconic Girl with a pearl earring. With a total resolution of 93,205 x 108,565, PetaPixel note that the scan is believed to be the first 10 billion pixel panorama ever created, allowing you to zoom in close enough to make the smallest stains paint in puddles and small cracks in cracks. The scan was apparently posted online early last year.
The Mauritshuis Gallery, where the work is usually housed, recently had to close temporarily due to COVID restrictions. But for now, this scan is a good substitute. In some ways, it’s actually better to have your virtual nose pressed against the painting, so that you’re thrown out of most art galleries or at least scolded by an annoying assistant.
The scan is the work of Hirox’s Emilien Leonhardt and Vincent Sabatier, who photographed the painting in March 2018 using a high-resolution microscope. The painting was taking about 9,100 photographs of it using a high-resolution microscope before being stitched together. The resulting scan enabled the team to assess its condition, learn more about Vermeer’s painting technique and understand the restoration of work in the past. You can learn more about the scanning process in the short video Hirox below:
The 2D image is one thing, but where things get particularly interesting is with the 3D scans, which cover 10 specific parts of the painting, such as the subject’s eyes and iconic earring. With these scans, you can view portions of the painting from any angle and see that the seemingly flat surface is anything but, thanks to the layers of dried paint that make up the painting. There is even a small virtual light that you can drag around within the program to see how these surface imperfections cast a shadow over their surrounding area.
For more information on what these scans and other technical research on this painting show, please visit this blog post from the Mauritshuis last year. Meanwhile, the rest of the museum has also been digitized, with 36 masterpieces available to view in detail.