See ‘The Last Supper’ as Leonardo Never Imagined

Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 11.05.07 | 12:49 PM ET

By no means does the 16 billion pixel digital image of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece “The Last Supper” offer the experience of visiting the real thing in the refectory of the Santa Maria delle Grazie convent in Milan, Italy. But it is rather spectacular. Italian cultural officials teamed with high-definition photography experts HAL9000 to create what they’re billing as the world’s largest highest definition photo. It offers clear views of sections of the painting as small as one square millimeter, close enough to see every detail—and every crack in the paint. Good luck getting so near to the original.