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State of the Art: Museum Takes Hi-Tech Look at Vermeer

by Associated Press

   THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS --

   Researchers at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague are using the latest
   technology to take a long, hard look at one of their most prized
   paintings, Johannes Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring," and they are
   inviting the public in to watch.
   For two weeks starting Monday, experts are pointing a battery of
   high-tech machines at the 17th century masterpiece of a young woman
   whose enigmatic gaze has earned her the nickname of the Dutch Mona
   Lisa.
   Mauritshuis Director Emilie Gordenker says the iconic painting was last
   studied in 1994 during a conservation project.
   Since then, technology has made such advances that the museum says
   scanners and X-ray machines can provide new insights into how Vermeer
   painted the girl and the materials he used.