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Scans of Girl With a Pearl Earring Reveal Painting's Hidden Secrets
New Scientist ^ | David Stock

Posted on 06/19/2023 12:22:16 PM PDT by nickcarraway

A new exhibition at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Netherlands, shows how Johannes Vermeer’s masterpiece, Girl with a Pearl Earring, has changed over time. Using the latest imaging technology, including a new 108-billion-pixel scan by 3D digital microscopy company Hirox, researchers were able to better understand what this work may have looked like when Vermeer first painted it around 1665.

“We found out some really exciting things about the girl,” says painting conservator Abbie Vandivere at the Mauritshuis. “For instance, that the background used to be a green curtain, and that she has eyelashes that are now no longer visible because the paints have changed over time.”

The scans also revealed that Vermeer made compositional changes during the painting process, such as the position of the ear. They also allowed researchers to trace where his pigments originated. Lead white came from the Peak District in England, cochineal (red) from insects found in Mexico and South America and ultramarine from Afghanistan.

(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Computers/Internet; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: girlwithpearlearring; godsgravesglyphs; johannesvermeer; painting; vermeer
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To: lee martell

I’ve watched that movie a couple times, and enjoyed it.


21 posted on 06/19/2023 2:18:42 PM PDT by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: Red Badger

I did see this, can’t remember where.


22 posted on 06/19/2023 2:19:43 PM PDT by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: NFHale

I much prefer the work of artists like this whose products that look real.


23 posted on 06/19/2023 2:34:22 PM PDT by hoosierham (Freedom isnt free)
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To: hoosierham

Same here.

That’s a beautiful work, right there.


24 posted on 06/19/2023 3:25:39 PM PDT by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
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To: newfreep

She is kind of hot. In an unobtainable way.


25 posted on 06/19/2023 3:28:41 PM PDT by Honest Nigerian
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To: nickcarraway

Wellington kinda had Boneys number.


26 posted on 06/19/2023 4:00:25 PM PDT by Jolla ( )
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To: Red Badger

The artist David Hockney wrote a book about artists (specifically Vermeer) using the camera obscura. He demonstrated that the human eye doesn’t see things the same way a lens, or a device like the camera obscura does, so if certain artifacts appear in a work, it’s a pretty clear indication that the human eye wasn’t the only thing used to record the scene. He also pointed out that Vermeer was a friend of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, who was famous for his discoveries with the microscope, but was also a lens crafter - a good person to know if you might be interested in getting better detail and focus from a camera obscura.


27 posted on 06/19/2023 4:29:27 PM PDT by Flag_This
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To: nickcarraway
One of the loveliest paintings ever! Forgive me, therefore:


28 posted on 06/19/2023 5:50:02 PM PDT by Albion Wilde (“There is no good government at all & none possible.”--Mark Twain)
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To: nickcarraway; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; ...
Thanks nickcarraway.

29 posted on 06/19/2023 9:29:24 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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