The Rijksmuseum:

The Rijksmuseum’s imaging team led by datascientist Robert Erdmann made this photograph of The Night Watch from a total of 528 exposures. The 24 rows of 22 pictures were stitched together digitally with the aid of neural networks. The final image is made up of 44.8 gigapixels (44,804,687,500 pixels), and the distance between each pixel is 20 micrometres (0.02 mm). This enables the scientists to study the painting in detail remotely. The image will also be used to accurately track any future ageing processes taking place in the painting.

Not quite as well known as the Mona Lisa, The Night Watch is still one of the great master paintings. Like the Mona Lisa, if you do get to see the painting in person, you are kept at enough of a distance away that it is impossible to truly see any of the detail.

With this hyper-resolution release, you now have the chance to see this painting up close. The detail is amazing. Check out the lace collar (the brightest center of the image), zoom in to first see the lace, then a bit more to appreciate the brush strokes that create the illusion of lace.

Amazing also is the smoothness of the interface. Scrolling is effortless, with no lag. Brilliant work.