"New Rembrandt" presented in Amsterdam Automatic translate

AMSTERDAM. If you think that the portrait of a thirty-year-old man in a black hat and white collar is very similar to those paintings that he painted in the 17th century Rembrandt , you will make Bas Korsten a very happy person. In fact, the authors of this picture are programmers.

Last Tuesday in Amsterdam, this work of art was first presented, dubbed The Next Rembrandt. The work is the result of one and a half years of work and the answer to the question: can the latest technology "bring back to life" the most innovative artists of all time. Kosten, the creative director of the advertising agency whose project was the brainchild, admitted that there were a lot of doubters about his success. “The idea was met with a lot of unbelief and skepticism,” he says.

The work on the project required the involvement of scientists, developers, engineers and art historians from organizations such as Microsoft, Delft University of Technology, the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague and the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam. The final 3D version of the picture consists of more than 148 million pixels and is based on 168,263 fragments of the artist’s painting.

A number of problems were encountered by software developers who had to analyze the work of Rembrandt, his technique, the composition of paints, varnishes, etc. Then, a face recognition algorithm was connected to the work, which analyzed and classified the most typical geometric structures used to write the human figure and face.

Kosten emphasized that they were not trying to create a new Rembrandt. “We are creating something new in our work. Only Rembrandt could create Rembrandt. ” Many were critical of the result, but there were those who took it as a way to learn more about Rembrandt, what made him so great. “This is a way to keep the great master alive,” says Bas Costen.

Many art historians, including the directors of Mauritshuis and the Rembrandt House Museum, have greatly contributed to the project. The art critic Gary Schwartz called it "an exciting exercise in understanding." He added: “The developers had to work hard to identify the features that make Rembrandt Rembrandt. Despite the fact that no one will claim that the artist’s talent can be reduced to an algorithm, this method makes it possible to test their own ideas about his paintings in visual form. ”

Professor Joris Dik, who led the team at Delft University of Technology, said: “We had a huge amount of technical data on all of his paintings from different collections. Is it really possible to create something that would look like Rembrandt? This is a fascinating question. ”

The idea itself was developed by the advertising agency J Walter Thompson in Amsterdam for ING Bank. “They wanted something that corresponded to innovations in the banking world and in the field of culture and art,” says Kosten. He hopes that the project will be the beginning of a conversation about art and algorithms. “If computers can be taught to make music, why not teach them how to paint? It took us some perseverance. There were many moments when we thought that nothing would work. A huge amount of data was simply overwhelming. But today I think we have something decent to show people. ”

Anna Sidorova © Gallerix.ru