[anigbrowl]

Indeed. For the historical investigation that forms the backbones of the story, they had to do an imitation of the original work.

The paint strokes on the canvas are literally the superficial aspects of the painting. There is much more 'art' in the choice of subject, perspective, layout and so on. But had Tim chosen his own subject matter freely, then comparison's with Vermeer's technique would have been almost impossible.