Even in a museum, if you get as close as possible to Jan Vermeer’s masterpiece, you won’t be able to examine the painting in such detail!
Emilien Leonhardt and Vincent Sabatier from 3D microscopy company Hirox Europe were able to capture a 10 billion pixel image of the famous Girl with a Pearl Earring!
The goal of the project was to create a copy of the painting that would help art historians and restorers assess the condition of the surface of the art object, measure cracks and see traces of past restorations.
Overnight, Hirox Europe equipment took 9,100 photos offline. All the frames were then stitched together to form an image in which one pixel is equal to 4.4 microns!
However, when creating the copy, Leonhardt and Sabatier specified several areas that were captured in even greater, ultra-high resolution. In these places, one pixel is equal to 1.1 microns. This was done at the request of the restorers, who were interested in ten specific areas of the painting.
Anyone can view the canvas in ultra-clear resolution on the website created by Hirox Europe - www.micro-pano.com
