The Ghent Altarpiece in 100 Billion Pixels

The Ghent Altarpiece is a very large and complex panel painting which is considered to be one of Belgium’s masterpieces and one of the world’s treasures. The website “Closer to Van Eyck” has made it possible to zoom into this intricate, breathtaking details of one of the most important works of art from the medieval world.

Each centimeter of the altarpiece was scrutinized and professionally photographed at extremely high resolution in both regular and infrared light. The photographs were then digitally “stitched” together to create highly detailed images which allow for study of the painting at unprecedented microscopic levels. The website itself contains 100 billion pixels.