Photomosaic · 1,655 Romanian paintings
Photomosaic from 1,655 Romanian paintings
Pick a photo or take one now, and it is rebuilt from paintings in Romanian museums. Every tile is a real canvas: zoom in until the brushwork shows.
On a phone, pinch the picture to zoom. On a computer, click the picture, then scroll. Tap a tile to learn who painted it.
The photo is processed in this browser only: it is not sent or stored anywhere. The mosaic leaves the device only if you send it.
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Which paintings
Download and send
The image carries the licence notice at the bottom; the list of paintings downloads separately and goes with it when published.
Most used first. Each title links to the CIMEC record.
#How each painting is chosen
The photo is cut into squares. Each square is split into 3×3 blocks, and the colour of every block is measured in CIELAB, a space built around how the eye sees the difference between two colours. The same measurement was made once for each of the 1,655 paintings, on the central square of each image.
For every square of the photo, the painting whose 3×3 looks most like it is picked. Nine blocks instead of one average colour let an eyelash, a lip or the edge of a cheek land on a painting with the same step from dark to light. Tap a tile to see the two grids side by side.
A painting is penalised if the same one sits nearby or has been used too often, so the mosaic does not turn into wallpaper made of a few portraits. The “Photo colour over the paintings” slider mixes the square’s colour over the painting, from 0 to 40%.
#The paintings the mosaic is made of
The mosaic uses 1,655 dated paintings from 52 Romanian collections, between 1840 and 1986, taken from the CIMEC register of classified heritage (“Clasate”), published through Europeana. All carry the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. They come from 309 painters; 326 titles speak of a portrait or a figure.
The paintings are darker than a photograph: half the paintings have a lightness below 46 out of 100 (measured on the central square), and only 6 of 1,655 pass 80. That is why faces read well, while the pure white of a shirt or a sky cannot be reached. The “Photo lightness” slider pulls the photo’s tones towards what the collection holds before matching.
| National Museum of Art of Romania | 699 |
|---|---|
| Bucharest Municipality Museum | 179 |
| Constanța Art Museum | 116 |
| Moldova National Museum Complex | 72 |
| Székely National Museum | 49 |
| National Museum of Romanian History | 45 |
| Museum of Art Cluj-Napoca | 33 |
| Tarii Crisurilor Museum | 32 |
| Gheorghe Petrașcu | 123 |
|---|---|
| Theodor Aman | 74 |
| Nicolae Grigorescu | 74 |
| Alexandru Ciucurencu | 61 |
| Sava Henția | 45 |
| Corneliu Baba | 44 |
| Jean Alexandru Steriadi | 39 |
| Iosif Iser | 38 |
The same collection of canvases, read as a palette by year: The colour of Romanian painting, year by year.
#Questions
Is my photo uploaded to a server?
No. The photo is read and processed only on your device. It is sent nowhere, and the mosaic you download is drawn there too.
May I publish the mosaic?
Yes, with the licence notice. The paintings are under CC BY-SA 4.0: when publishing, name the source (CIMEC, “Clasate”, via Europeana), give the licence and show that the image is an adaptation. The downloaded image carries the licence notice and the address of the list of all paintings at the bottom; the exact list of those used downloads separately as a .txt file and is best published beside it. If you publish the image, you publish it under CC BY-SA 4.0 too. The photo stays yours; if other people appear in it, their consent is needed.
Why is there no bright white?
Of 1,655 paintings, only 6 have a lightness above 80 out of 100. The brightest parts of the photo get the lightest paintings in the collection, and the photo’s colour can be added over them.
Why do some paintings repeat?
There are 1,655 paintings and thousands of tiles, so some repeat. “No identical painting next to itself” penalises the same painting in nearby squares, though a far better match can still return. With more tiles across, the mosaic uses more distinct paintings.
What does “portraits and figures” mean?
The filter keeps paintings whose title contains words such as portrait, self-portrait, woman, man, child, girl or lady. It rests on the title alone, so a scene with people may pass, and a portrait whose title lacks those words does not.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. “Take a photo” opens the phone’s camera. On screen, pinch with two fingers to zoom and drag to move the picture.
#Sources and licences
Images used
Paintings: CIMEC, “Clasate” register of classified movable cultural heritage, via Europeana, licence CC BY-SA 4.0. Every painting is named in the list under the mosaic and in the .txt file. Example photos: NASA photograph of an astronaut — public domain. NASA photograph: astronaut Mae Jemison — public domain. Nicolae Grigorescu, “Portret de tânără cu basma”, 1895 — CIMEC, CC BY-SA 4.0. Sava Henția, “Portret de bărbat”, 1885 — CIMEC, CC BY-SA 4.0.
The mosaic is an adaptation of the paintings and is published under the same licence.