Jan van Eyck's Complete Works Go Online in Ultra-High Resolution

The Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) in Brussels has launched Closer to Van Eyck, a website offering free, ultra-high-resolution access to all known works by Jan van Eyck and his workshop. The project, part of the VERONA (Van Eyck Research in OpeN Access) initiative, uses macro photography with normal, raking, infrared, and UV fluorescence light, and in some cases X-ray and macro-XRF scanning. Among the 30 digitized works are the Arnolfini Portrait, the presumed Self-Portrait from the National Gallery in London, the St. Francis in Turin, the Crucifixion in Venice, two altarpiece panels in New York, and the Turin-Milan Hours, a manuscript partially burned in 1904 now viewable in color for the first time. The site allows side-by-side comparison of works of different sizes. In autumn, the digitized works will feature in "Facing Van Eyck. The Miracle of the Detail," an interactive exhibition at BOZAR – Center for Fine Arts in Brussels. The project follows similar digital initiatives like Google Arts & Culture's Faces of Frida, Open Heritage, the Met's API, Meet Vermeer with the Mauritshuis Museum, and the British Museum's Maya civilization virtual exhibition.