347 years after his death, one of the greatest Masters of all time, dutchman Rembrandt, is brought back to life to create one more masterpiece. But this time, data is the painter and technology the brush: The Next Rembrandt.

The Next Rembrandt is a 3D printed painting made completely out of data derived from Rembrandt’s total body of work. All of his 346 paintings were analysed using hi-res 3D scans and digital files upscaled by a deep learning algorithm for maximum resolution.

Facial recognition and machine learning software was designed that could understand Rembrandt’s style and could use those learnings to generate new facial features, which were assembled based on his use of geometrical proportions.

Once the 2D image was complete, a height map was created to mimic the brushstrokes used by Rembrandt. The file was brought to life through an advanced 3D printer that printed 13 layers of paint based UV-ink.

On the 5th April 2016, The Next Rembrandt was unveiled at an exhibited in Amsterdam, the place where Rembrandt lived and worked.

The Next Rembrandt is data visualisation. In a way never seen before. The painting brings data to life. Creates emotion. Creates a global conversation about where data and technology can takes us. This data visualisation inspires people to think about what else is possible.

Up until now ING has had a campaign that is based on different innovative features in the realm of banking products and services. But data has never been at the heart of any of these campaigns.

When ING wanted to bring their innovative spirit to their sponsorship of Dutch art and culture, this was a great opportunity to show they beauty of data visualisation. In The Next Rembrandt campaign, data is the creative output. The story enhances ING’s innovation campaign from a data-led perspective.

And it sparks the conversation about what data is possible of creating. Can a machine be creative? Is art really a science? Do you need a soul to create art? Do you need to be human to paint humanity?

People from all over the world came to experience the unveiling and exhibition of The Next Rembrandt in Amsterdam. There the conversation about where data and technology can take us, started. A conversation that went global.

The Next Rembrandt was global trending topic, reporting almost 10 million Twitter impressions on the day of the unveiling.

Over 1.400 articles were written.

All the major news networks covered the unveiling and commented on its meaning for future innovations.

Globally over 1.8 billion media impressions were measured.

The total earned media value of the project amounted to 12.5 milllion euro.

On launch day Fortune Magazine reported an increase in stock value for ING (ING ^1.22%) and partner Microsoft (MSFT ^ 0.49%).

And in the weeks after the launch, Google reported an increase of ING’s Search Interest by 61.29%, and Microsoft’s by 20%.

To benefit future innovations, together with Microsoft, parts of the code will be made open source.

Next to the ongoing global conversation about what this painting means for our industry and the future of creativity, there was another fundamental result: the technology developed for The Next Rembrandt is now used for the restauration of damaged and partially lost Masterpieces.

Over the years data visualisation has come a long way. From being quite mechanistic to artistic. But never as true art. Data visualisation was mainly about making data look more beautiful.

The Next Rembrandt fundamentally changes this conception.

It takes perhaps the highest form of creativity – fine art – and demonstrates how it can be beautifully re-born with simple zeros and ones.

It is data visualisation at its purest and most fundamental.

The work raises provocative questions for our industry to consider, and even for the wider world of art and culture to ponder too.

The Next Rembrandt is a painting fully made out of Rembrandt-data. It is bringing back to life the Master of Light and Shadow by a multidisciplinary of academic experts, data scientists and software engineers that discovered innovative ways to leverage historical and statistical data.

Luckily, Rembrandt is one of the best documented painters of all time. All of his 346 paintings were analysed on a pixel by pixel basis and an extensive database was built. Supporting partner Microsoft lend their cloud platform Azure to host, process and analyse all the data gathered.

First, statistical and demographical data were used to determine the subject of the painting. After that, facial recognition and machine learning software was designed that could understand Rembrandt’s style and used those learnings to generate new facial features, which were assembled based on his use of geometric proportions.

Finally, existing hi-res 3D scans of Rembrandt paintings were used to teach a computer how to apply brush strokes like Rembrandt. That information, assembled in a height map was used to create the texture of The Next Rembrandt painting.

Resulting, after more than18 months, in a new Rembrandt-portrait made of data of over 11 billion pixels.

ING, a Dutch multinational banking group, has been building its credentials as an innovative bank.

It has introduced many innovative solutions to provide its clients. From the introduction of fingerprint log-in, which makes banking more safe, easy and intuitive, to the introduction of twyp, a free app that you can use to transfer money to friends via your smartphone.

All of these projects involved innovative technology but none of them specifically called out ING’s particular skill in data – a key characteristic of innovative companies today.

For many years ING has been supporting Dutch art and culture - a world that’s riddled with tradition, rather than innovation – and so ‘art’ became the natural arena for this new work.

Combining these two seemingly juxtaposed world’s, classical art and data, was the start of a revolution in data visualisation.