Look closer.

Every famous painting hides something most people walk straight past. Each of our videos takes one painting, zooms in on one small detail, and follows it: what it is, who put it there, and what restorers, scientists and historians have found out about it.

Watch on YouTube Read our corrections

Run your cursor over the name.Touch the name. There is something in it.

The letter D from our name, enlarged. A small eye is hidden inside it.

How we work

One painting, one detail, every week. Four rules hold for every video.

Every video starts from a source file

Before there is a script, there is a file of facts: museum records, restoration reports, the artist's own letters, published research. The sources are listed under each video.

A theory is called a theory

When the evidence stops, we say so. If a detail has no documented explanation, we show it, give the readings that exist, and leave the question open.

Mistakes are corrected in public

When we get something wrong, we add a timestamped correction under the video and log it on this page.

Thumbnails are made by hand

Each one is built in Photoshop from the real painting. What we circle on the thumbnail is what the video is about.

Start here

Five videos that show what the channel does.

Corrections

In October 2026 we checked our five most-watched videos against their sources, line by line. This is everything we got wrong. The timestamped corrections are also posted under their videos.

Logged on 4 October 2026
VideoAtWhat we saidWhat is correct
The Bedroom 7:19 Mark Walton, working out of the Art Institute of Chicago Marc Walton is a professor at Northwestern University.
The Bedroom on screen Octuber 1888 October 1888. A typo in our caption.
The Last Supper 7:47 funded by an $8 million sponsorship from Olivetti We could not confirm that figure. Olivetti became the restoration's sole sponsor in 1982.
The Last Supper 9:42 a tablecloth patterned with tiny millefleurs The flower pattern is on the wall hangings beside the table, not on the tablecloth.
The Last Supper 10:29 We presented Peter's hand holding a knife as something the restoration revealed. The hand and the knife were always visible. They were not a discovery.
A Bar at the Folies-Bergère 4:14 largely unchallenged for the next 118 years Thierry de Duve published an explanation in 1998, before the reconstruction we describe.
A Bar at the Folies-Bergère 5:08 In 1966, Michel Foucault took up this painting in a book He discussed it in lectures given between 1967 and 1971, published in 2004.
The Milkmaid 2:20 since the painting was rediscovered in the 19th century The painting was never lost. It was sold at auction in 1719 and bought by the Rijksmuseum in 1908. What revived was Vermeer's reputation.
The Milkmaid 5:46 the only two surviving eyewitness accounts describe his sense of perspective Only one does: Pieter Teding van Berckhout, in 1669.
The Milkmaid 7:21 The two men were neighbors, and Van Leeuwenhoek is believed to have posed No contact between them is documented in Vermeer's lifetime. That he posed is a conjecture.
Mona Lisa 2:39 over 1,600 scans, one wavelength at a time About 1,650 images, taken through 13 wavelength filters.
Mona Lisa 2:55 the same 400-year-old painting It is about 500 years old, painted between 1503 and 1519.
Mona Lisa 6:03 before ever touching a brush to this canvas The Mona Lisa is painted on a poplar panel, not on canvas.
Mona Lisa 7:01 just above her right shoulder The shape is in the sky to the right of her head, and the published paper calls a hairpin “a possibility”.

Who makes it

Three people.

Jeremy
Chooses the paintings and the angle, and directs the channel.
Lloyd
Handles the scripts and makes every thumbnail by hand.
Muhammad
Edits the videos.

Write to us

Found a mistake? Want us to look at a painting? This address is read by a person.

[email protected]