Mmicroscope manufacturer Hirox created a panorama of the celebrities of Vermeer Girl with a pearl earring with a mind-goggling 10-gigapixel resolution, as seen by Petapixel. More than 9,100 photos were taken through the company’s Hirox 3D microscope down to a four-micron detail, revealing every tear and drop of paint with unprecedented detail. The group also made a 3D map of the canvas that reveals what the surface of an alien planet looks like.
The painting is one of the most famous in the world, partly because of Vermeer’s extraordinary ability to capture light, and hangs in the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hauge. Curators launched the project as part of Girl in the spotlight, an in-depth scientific investigation of his most famous painting. The microscope panorama was undertaken by Emilien Leonhardt and Vincent Sabatier of Hirox to evaluate the surface of key areas and analyze previous restorations.
The microscope is programmed to automatically focus on the painting and capture the images and then stitch everything together. Certain regions of the painting were captured in even greater detail using the 3D capabilities of the microscope. For those, each pixel was equal to 1.1 microns, with multiple images of each region to create a topography map, allowing experts to see the differences in paint height and other details.
“The Hirox software automatically moves the lens up and down with very high precision and creates a series of images with different focus shots [points] and combine it into one fully focused image, ”Leonhardt said. “The motorized X / Y stage then moves to the next position and creates a high resolution panorama.”
In one part of the left eye you can zoom in to see the pupil and then zoom in much further to see the light source reflected in the pupil as a few spots of paint. Another section shows two small dots of paint that Vermeer added to give the garment texture.
By switching to 3D mode, the same stain of paint can be seen on the pupil from the front, revealing topographical details in the paint and cracks. You can also explore other regions, including the person’s mouth, the garment and, yes, the famous earrings. These kinds of details are incredibly valuable to curators as they can track the wear of the painting and explore the restorations of the past. Hirox has created a special website for scanning, and you can zoom in here and view it in 3D.