For the last hour, I’ve been avoiding work, browsing this incredibly high-resolution image of the iconic Girl with Pearl Earring. With a total resolution of 93,205 x 108,565, PetaPixel notes that the scan is believed to be the first 10 billion pixel panorama ever created, allowing you to zoom in sufficiently to turn the smallest ink smears into puddles and tiny cracks into crevices. The scan appears to have been posted online beginning of last year.
The Mauritshuis gallery, which normally houses the work, recently had to temporarily close due to COVID restrictions. But for now, this scan is a good replacement. In a way, it’s really better, allowing you to press your virtual nose against the painting in a way that would get you kicked out of most art galleries or scolded by an angry assistant, at the very least.
The scan is the work of Emilien Leonhardt and Vincent Sabatier of Hirox, who photographed the painting using a high resolution microscope in March 2018. Digitizing the painting involved taking about 9,100 photos using a high resolution microscope before sewing them. . The resulting digitalization allowed the team to assess its condition, learn more about Vermeer’s painting technique and understand the work’s previous restorations. You can learn more about the scanning process in the short Hirox video posted below:
The 2D image is one thing, but where things get especially interesting is in the 3D scans, which cover 10 specific areas of the painting, such as the subject’s eyes and the iconic earring. These sweeps allow you to look at sections of the paint from any angle and see that its apparent flat surface is nothing, thanks to the dry paint layers that make up the paint. There is even a small virtual light that you can drag within the program to see how these imperfections on the surface cast a shadow over the surrounding area.
To learn more about what these scans and other technical research shows about this painting, check out this blog post from Mauritshuis last year. Meanwhile, the rest of the museum has also been digitized, with 36 masterpieces available for viewing in detail.