After two years of study, the Hague Mauritshuis Museum has a panorama of 10 billion pixels of vermeer’s girl with a pearl earring. led by emilien leonhardt and vincent sabater from hirox europe, the project was able to create an image with an incredible resolution that enables people to see the painting with a detail of 4.4 microns per pixel. the project, which evaluates the surface condition of the artwork, revealed other discoveries that were unknown about it.
Using the Hirox 3D digital microscope, the team was able to capture a picture of the artwork that allows you to zoom in on the surface and magnify it up to 700 times – something that was only possible after the girl was framed. To create this, the team placed the painting horizontally on a table while the microscope scanned the entire surface of a motorized stand above her. it generated a panoramic image of 20 billion pixels with a magnification of 35x. then they take 140x close-ups, resulting in incredible scans of these details in 3D.
thanks to these macro-X-ray fluorescence scans, the research also found that augmented lashes painted on the girl, something that contradicts the previous belief that they were omitted to indicate an idealized face. they could also identify the pigments he uses, which include white lead from northern England, lapis lazuli ultra marine blue from Afghanistan, and cochineal red made from bugs in Mexico.
“It’s amazing how much high quality ultramarine augmentation is used in the girl’s headscarf,” mauritshuis conservator and project leader, abbie vandivere,’s comments. “This blue pigment was more valuable than gold in the 17th century.”
‘the fact that she’s still a mystery makes people come back and keeps her exciting and fresh,’ vandivere continues. ‘It’s good that there are some mysteries left and that everyone can speculate about her. it allows people to have their own personal interpretation of the girl. each feels his own connection to the way she meets your eyes. ‘