February 26th, 2011 Google Art Project – explore world-famous museums!
Google Art Project: the world famous museums in your computer.
Zoom of famous Van Gogh “Sunflowers“
Wow.
Google has once again graced us with a new invention. The work of this new program is similar to their Google maps Street View, but the subject is completely different. This time this novelty is for art lovers.
Want to enjoy ceiling paintings in the Mirror Gallery Palace of Versailles, and then go look at “Guernica, ” Picasso at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, not forgetting to drop it to the Hermitage? Now you can do this from your sofa, thanks to Google Art Project – a virtual tour of the most famous museums in the world: Versailles, the Hermitage, the National Gallery in London, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, The Tretyakov Gallery, the New York Museum of Modern Art and others.
Google Art Project gives the effect of the presence, you do not just see the slides, but really “go” through on-line halls. More than a thousand pictures in ultra-high resolution are presented, easily added comments and the opportunity to share the masterpieces with friends.
It’s very easy to get started with Google Art Project . You can easily create your own collection of your favourite paintings. You need only to choose the museum you want to visit and then to choose “Explore the museum” or “View Artwork”. It’s easily to zoom each piece of art using custom viewer. You can view great amount of artworks in details. Using Street Views is a great advantage, which allows you to walk freely around the virtual halls, turning 360 degrees. Every visitor of online gallery is able not only to navigate through museum galleries and selecting work of art, but also to have more info about museum, artists, artworks and even watch YouTube video about this. All information about paintings is provided by museums.
For now these museums are included in the project:
Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin – Germany
Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian, Washington DC – USA
The Frick Collection, NYC – USA
Gemaldegalerie, Berlin – Germany
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC – USA
MoMA, The Museum of Modern Art, NYC – USA
Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid – Spain
Museo Thyssen – Bornemisza, Madrid – Spain
Museum Kampa, Prague – Czech Republic
National Gallery, London – UK
Palace of Versailles – France
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam – The Netherlands
The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg – Russia
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow – Russia
Tate Britain, London – UK
Uffizi Gallery, Florence – Italy
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam – The Netherlands
List of museums in the future will be replenished.
It’s a pity but Louvre – the world’s first museum on the number of visitors (8,500,000 in 2010) does not become a partner of Google. According to a representative of the museum, Google asked the administration of the Louvre to join Google Art Project in 2009, however, the Louvre proposal rejected on the grounds that the project seemed blurred.
Director of the Museum of Versailles, Jean-Jacques Ayagon, is glad that Versailles became the only French museum in this list.
Here’s what he says:
“What our benefit from it? It’s very simple. Each year, the Palace of Versailles attends a huge number of tourists: more than 6 million. However, many people in the world dream of seeing Versailles, but could never get here. We can’t even imagine, if those who are on the other side of the world, somewhere in Patagonia, Lapland or the Far East will ever come to Versailles, but this project enables those who are not able to come to the Palace of Versailles, to see it.
When I go to the Mirror Gallery and try to look into the details of the painting on the ceiling, I often tell myself that it is difficult to discern tiny details. We are not every day can view Mirrormask gallery with scaffolding. Art Project makes it possible to consider all the details of this cycle, brings us to the important events of the reign of Louis XIV.“
Museum workers believe: visit of a virtual museum will not prevent the real one. According to director of London’s Tate Gallery, Nicholas Serota, experience suggests that after seeing a painting on the Internet, people want to see it live.
Hope, you will enjoy this new opportunity. Let’s begin!
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