Rijksmuseum Posts ‘Most Detailed’ 45-Gigapixel View Of Rembrandt’s ‘Night Watch’
Image via InnaFelker / Shutterstock.com
Rembrandt van Rijn’s The Night Watch masterpiece, a prime example of the use of lighting in art, can now be viewed in hyper resolution—44.8 gigapixels, to be exact. So there’s no need to feel deprived of seeing the painting in person while the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam remains closed until 1 June due to the COVID-19 situation.
In order to restore the 1642 painting, the museum’s imaging team, spearheaded by data scientist Robert Erdman, captured and stitched together 528 exposures of The Night Watch, enabling them to study the painting at home.
The full-blown image, described as the “most detailed ever photograph of The Night Watch,” is now available to view and zoom into online, and measures at a whopping 44,804,687,500 pixels.
The actual artwork stands at 12 feet with a width of 14 feet, and each pixel measures 0.02mm, so there’s plenty of brushstrokes to delve into. You can even peer into the red skin around each character’s eyes, a true testament to Rembrandt’s attention to color and detail.
You can view the photograph here.
[via Kottke, cover image via InnaFelker / Shutterstock.com]
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