An exhibition at the Sarasota Museum of Art, ‘Contemplating Vermeer ... Legacy Tours to life ‘Contemplating Vermeer’ is made up of 16 paintings at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

That’s one takeaway from “Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry,” an exhibit (October 22 through January 21) at Washington’s National Gallery of Art.

The scans also revealed that Vermeer made compositional changes during the painting process, such as the position of the ear. They also allowed researchers to trace where his pigments originated.