The most appealing results of the research done in the Research Agenda 2008-2012 set in the spotlights.
Govert Flinck, Isaac blesses Jacob, c. 1635.
Only now could the work process of a 17th-century painter be followed from so close by. This has been made possible by the Internet version of the iPad application that the Museum Catharijneconvent developed for the painting Isaac blesses Jacob by Govert Flinck (1615-1660).
The museum has used the latest techniques to allow its visitors in the gallery 'to look through the paint' by using an iPad. This was done using the technique of AR, Augmented Reality. Elements were added to a live image of the painting as it appears to the naked eye by a computer. Special software reveals the underlying paint and primer layers and adds other scientific information about the canvas, the under-painting, the way the artist wielded his brush and how he managed to suggest the most beautiful textile textures.
The Augmented Reality Lab developed the iPad app together with the Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency for the Museum Catharijeneconvent. The Utrecht design company Ooxo then converted the app to an online application that is available to all. The online application so meticulously simulates the AR-App that for the user the experience is like standing before the painting itself in the museum.
Margriet van Eikema Hommes
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam, Museum Het Catharijnenconvent
The Augmented Reality Lab of the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague (AR-App); media & grafic design Ooxo, Utrecht