A brand new exhibition at Mauritshuis Museum, The Hague, reveals how Johannes Vermeer’s masterpiece, Woman with a Pearl Earring has modified over time. Utilizing the most recent imaging expertise, which included a brand new 108 billion pixel scan by 3D digital microscopy firm, Hirox, researchers have been capable of higher perceive what Vermeer’s portray might have appeared like when it was first painted round 1665.
“We discovered some actually thrilling issues in regards to the woman”, says portray conservator, Abbie Vandivere on the Mauritshuis Museum. “For example, that the background was a inexperienced curtain, and that she has eyelashes that are actually now not seen as a result of the paints have modified over time”.
The scans additionally revealed that Vermeer made compositional adjustments throughout the portray course of, such because the place of the ear, and allowed researchers to hint the place the painter’s pigments originated. Lead white got here from the Peak District in England, cochineal from bugs present in Mexico and South America, and ultramarine from Afghanistan.
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