Gaze in wonder at this astonishingly high-res scan of an iconic painting

For the past hour, I’ve been avoiding work by browsing this amazingly high-resolution scan of Johannes Vermeer’s iconic Girl with a Pearl Earring. With a total resolution of 93,205 x 108,565, PetaPixel notes the scan is believed to be the first 10 billion pixel panorama ever created, allowing you to zoom in close enough to turn the tiniest flecks of paint into puddles and minuscule cracks into crevasses. The scan appears to have been posted online early last year.

The Mauritshuis gallery, which normally houses the work, recently had to temporarily close due to COVID restrictions. But for the time being, this scan is a nice replacement. In some ways, it’s actually better, letting you press your virtual nose up against the painting in a...

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