Microscope manufacturer Hirox, as part of the “Girl in the spotlight” project, which is organized by the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague (the original of the painting hangs there), was able to make a digital copy of the canvas with a resolution of 10 gigapixels. For this, a Hirox 3D microscope with a special mechanism was used, which moved the device with high precision over the entire area of ​​the picture. Thus, 9100 photographs were taken with detail down to 4 microns, which were then combined into one image. Some areas of the picture were captured by a microscope with even greater detail in 3D mode, where each pixel is equivalent to 1.1 microns. As a result, a kind of “topographic” map of the surface of the painting was obtained, which allows everyone to see the differences in the height of the layers of paint and other details. Only some elements of the picture can be viewed in 3D – eyes, lips,

In general, those who adore the work of Jan Vermeer, but cannot go to look at his textbook work, now have the opportunity to do it from a computer screen without leaving home, having discerned everything in great detail.

Hiro engineers Emilien Leonhardt and Vincent Sabatier worked on obtaining images with a microscope. For ordinary people, such works, except for just familiarizing themselves and wondering, probably have no other meaning, but professionals who monitor the change in the state of paintings over the years and how they need to be restored will find such projects very useful.

You can personally familiarize yourself with the resulting image on the official website of the project.