Rijksmuseum releases 717 gigapixel AI-stitched scan of Rembrandt's 'The Night Watch'

A 717 gigapixel digital image of Rembrandt's 'The Night Watch' (1642) has been published by the Rijksmuseum, marking the most detailed scan ever created of an artwork. The Dutch museum produced this 5.6 terabyte file while the physical painting undergoes restoration, temporarily removing it from public view in Amsterdam. Conservationists employed a 100-megapixel Hasselblad H6D 400 MS-camera to capture 8,439 individual photographs, each measuring 5.5cm by 4.1cm. Artificial intelligence algorithms then combined these images into a single comprehensive view where pixels are spaced just 5 micrometres apart—smaller than a human red blood cell. This ongoing investigation into the Dutch Golden Age masterpiece involves remounting the canvas to address deformities, particularly ripples in the upper left corner. The final image, comprising 717,000,000,000 pixels, is accessible on the museum's website. The painting itself measures over four meters in length and three meters in height.