From the Arts and Culture Unit of the Department of Interestingness
The Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands is undertaking the largest research and conservation project ever for Rembrandt's 'The Night Watch'. LINK
What they're doing is photographing and 3d scanning this 12x14 foot beast of a painting and at microscopic levels. They've released a 44.8 gigapixel image you can zoom all the way into here: LINK
Here's the painting:
Here's a close up of the Captain Frans Banninck Cocq's eye:
Here it is at the museum, where visitors can watch the restoration happening live:
Why all of this hubbub for this painting? This painting is famous and important because Rembrandt broke the rules with it. He was commissioned to paint a group portrait for a prominent military outfit. What he delivered was a painted story: a living scene, not a collection of stiff poses. Rembrandt was the first artist to paint figures in a group portrait actually doing something. The conventional rules of portrait painting at the time was to give each member of the group equal prominence. Instead, Rembrandt created the painter’s equivalent of a snapshot: a group of militiamen who have just moved into action and are about to march off. It was a controversial move, and the captain did not like it. Not one bit. But who's a household name today?