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108B Pixel Scan of Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring

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Re: 108B Pixel Scan of Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring

#131
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. I was at the Virginia Museum of Art where they have several Monets and 3 Van Goghs. They also let you get quite close to them… less than a foot away in some cases. The amount of texture is incredible. (What also struck me in person, though I had read about it previously, is how tiny almost all Van Goghs are. Barely more than postcard size in some cases.

You should probably fact check your statement about the size of Van Gogh paintings. Easily disproved.

Several of the paintings at the VMA are less than 10 inches in their lingerie dimension.

Perhaps postcard sized was slight hyperbole, but not by much. All 3 would have been in the bottom 5 of the museum size wise, and it’s a huge museum.

Re: 108B Pixel Scan of Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring

#132

Steve Mould just released a video about the microscopy technique that was used to capture this 3D relief of the painting: https://youtu.be/o-dZKBwbsis

Was it the same approach? The 3D relief has artifacts akin to ones produced by heightmaps

This would line up with the approach talked about in the video. In very short terms, pictures were taken at various focus distances and height was defined as whichever distance was the sharpest. This would essentially make a 2D height map with all of the artifacts that would come with it

Re: 108B Pixel Scan of Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the claims are true then Vermeer is absolutely exceptional, just in a different manner than is usually considered. All painters must grapple with the technical nature of paint itself and its manipulation. Choice of type of paint, canvas, application, &c. is paramount. Rothko’s work, for instance, is only effective because he found a novel way to apply paint that lends his paintings a remarkable, nigh eerie depth o…

There have been posts about reproducing art and I always thinking maybe I could make a mini-Rothko room in spare room.

that would be cool! sincerely. post it here if you do.

i feel like the above comment might come across as sarcastic but i genuinely find it super cool when a layman can master a new discipline with force of will and publicly available writings. much like vermeer's much speculated-upon clever use of technology ;)

Re: 108B Pixel Scan of Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring

#134
post #65
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you get a chance to see some of the impressionists in person, they’re kind of mind blowing for exactly the same reason - you’re looking at a scene of a ship in a storm and seeing all kinds of nuance, and then you get closer and realize it’s all your brain filling in the blanks. From a literary angle - two books I’ve read that are absolute master classes in this are Italio Calvino’s “Invisible Cities” and “This Is…

Absolutely. I was at the Virginia Museum of Art where they have several Monets and 3 Van Goghs. They also let you get quite close to them… less than a foot away in some cases. The amount of texture is incredible. (What also struck me in person, though I had read about it previously, is how tiny almost all Van Goghs are. Barely more than postcard size in some cases.

"They also let you get quite close to them… less than a foot away in some cases."

That happened to me some years ago in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, two remarkable pictures particularly come to mind Vermeer's The Milkmaid and a Rembrandt self portrait.

The Milkmaid is comparatively small painting (~18×16" according to Wiki) and I was not only able to view it up incredibly close and in detail but also it was a quiet time for visitors and I had the painting all to myself. I stared at it for minutes in a strange state of amazement brought on by not only how wonderful this Vermeer masterpiece was and that I was looking at it for real and it wasn't a dream but also that I could get so close and do so for so long given the work is worth many, many millions, it's effectively priceless. My experience was even more remarkable given that I was visiting the museum just after Rembrandt's The Night Watch had been repaired, restored and put back on display after a maniac had slashed it with a knife.

The other painting was a Rembrandt self portrait, it was in an alcove all on its own. Again, I had this truly remarkable painting all to myself to view close up. It was an incredible experience, with Rembrandt's eyes staring directly at me it felt as if he was talking to me. It shocked me that a painting that is over 350 years old and painted by someone many generations removed from today could generate such a large emotional response in me.

I consider that particular visit to the Rijksmuseum (I've been there a number of times) as one of the most memorable experiences of my life and I consider it a great privilege that the museum provided me the opportunity to see these remarkable works up close and in depth.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milkmaid_(Vermeer)

Re: 108B Pixel Scan of Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an appealing hypothesis, but there's some compelling evidence to the contrary [0]. I'm not an expert, but this could potentially fall under the heading of pop history or pseudohistory. [0] https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4707

Watch Tim’s Vermeer. The camera obscura doesn’t work (for similar reasons as mentioned in the article). Don’t want to spoil it, but Tim comes up with a very low tech solution that fits all the evidence.

It sounds like a compelling film. Seeing now that it's produced by Penn & Teller's team, it makes me wonder about this fits into their "juggler vs. magician" dichotomy. The implication of that duo producing the film suggests that they might believe that Vermeer's reputation as an extraordinarily skilled artist ("juggler") might in fact be the result of Vermeer's use of a sophisticated apparatus that tricked patrons and viewers into thinking that he had extraordinary abilities, thus making Vermeer a master faker ("magician"). Or maybe they simply wanted to spur debate.

Re: 108B Pixel Scan of Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring

#136
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Italio Calvino’s “Invisible Cities” So wild seeing this referenced here, it's a pretty obscure book (of poetry nonetheless), and one my absolute favorites. Cheers to having great taste :) PS: Small nit: it's "Italo," not "Italio."

Hey! We read more than code, and Calvino's not so obscure. ;) Here, enjoy some stuff from my open tabs: https://rustandmoth.com/work/on-the-ducks-who-are-people-and... https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/26063/... https://fleursdumal.org/poem/099 https://writing.upenn.edu/epc/authors/bernstein/books/artifi...

This is gold, thanks for the links! Really good

Re: 108B Pixel Scan of Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring

#137
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you get a chance to see some of the impressionists in person, they’re kind of mind blowing for exactly the same reason - you’re looking at a scene of a ship in a storm and seeing all kinds of nuance, and then you get closer and realize it’s all your brain filling in the blanks. From a literary angle - two books I’ve read that are absolute master classes in this are Italio Calvino’s “Invisible Cities” and “This Is…

I read a lot of sci-fi and because it's come up in recommendations I've tried two or three times to read that book, "This Is How You Lose the Time War". The popularity of that book along with stuff like N.K. Jemisin winning "Best SciFi book" of the year 3 years in a row prove more than ever that the vast majority of people simply don't have taste in the sense they can not decide if they actually like something or not…

If a belief needs to assume most people are stupid compared to you, it's basically guaranteed to be wrong.

Talk to more people, you'll find they can think too.

Re: 108B Pixel Scan of Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring

#138

Steve Mould just released a video about the microscopy technique that was used to capture this 3D relief of the painting: https://youtu.be/o-dZKBwbsis

The microscope used for this is mind blowing. Falls squarely into the list of things I want but do not need.

I want one so badly, some of that footage is just unreal

My first guess was that it’s a clean $30k. Now I’m going to add a digit and guess $100k.

Re: 108B Pixel Scan of Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring

#139
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read a lot of sci-fi and because it's come up in recommendations I've tried two or three times to read that book, "This Is How You Lose the Time War". The popularity of that book along with stuff like N.K. Jemisin winning "Best SciFi book" of the year 3 years in a row prove more than ever that the vast majority of people simply don't have taste in the sense they can not decide if they actually like something or not…

> objectively bad Well that settles that, then.

The new reality for a lot of young people I find is that there is no objective reality. Its a dangerous and stupid idea but there is still an objective reality, even if you want to ignore it.

Re: 108B Pixel Scan of Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring

#140

Saw this picture at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague. There are a couple funny things about it: * It is surprisingly small * It is kinda "fuzzy" or "blurry", you can't detect too much brushwork. * It is very expressive But my favorite Vermeer is not this, it is View of Delft, also in the Mauritshuis. The colors, hues and textures on it are just amazing. For Brazilians, a funny curiosity: Mauritshuis means House of…

My favorite is The Little Street. ( https://www.johannesvermeer.org/the-little-street.jsp ). I just love the quiet calmness of it. I had a copy of it made from one of those cheap Asian oil painting places online (the frame I put it in cost me more than the painting!), and was surprised what a good job the artist did. When I went to Amsterdam a few years ago, I made a point to go see the real one. But I wondered how w…

Which service did you use for the recreation? Would like to do something similar. Currently have been doing high quality glossy prints from high-res images like this but a real painting with texture would be great.
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