Closer to Van Eyck: Rediscovering the Ghent Altarpiece is an online presentation of the results of a research project that examined the artist’s extraordinary masterwork in extreme detail, both to assess and record its condition for conservation.
The site opens up with a full image of the panels of the altarpiece; from there you can drill down into individual panels to levels of wonderful detail. You can also bring up images from the various panels in split screen view for as many as four at once and zoom in simultaneously.
The images include not only macrophotography, but infrared macrophotography, infrared reflectography and X-radiography, which reveal the master’s underlying layers and aspects of his working process.
See my previous post on Jan van Eyck.
[Via peacay, by way of MetaFilter]
Outstanding use of technology. This is a closer look than most people will ever get in their life time.
This makes me weep with joy. I will make a pilgrimage to see this before I die.