What happens when the Internet giant like Google gets its hands over art—real works of art by the painters of different epochs and countries? It’s not until today that the answer became obvious: today Google Inc. announced in its blog it is launching a new project at www.googleartproject.com—the name that speaks for itself.
Google Art Project is created for those who takes interest in the arts but cannot afford to travel the world to see all of its masterpieces. So, it gives you a chance to pay a virtual visit to the most popular art galleries or museums of the world to enjoy a 3D view of the museum and navigate from one room to another using the classical Street View navigation system. Among other 17 art venues that have opened their doors to the Internet visitors, there are: Museum of Modern Art of New York, Altenationalgalerie (Berlin), National Gallery (London), Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), The State Hermitage Museum (Saint-Petersburg, Russia), State Tretyakov Gallery, etc.
Image: www.googleartproject.com, Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy
Another great surprise for those keen on arts is that you will be able to see some of the greatest paintings from the world-renowned museums to the brushstroke-level detail. One of the most notable painting from each museum listed in the project was photographed by Google professionals using a super high resolution or “gigapixel” photographing technology, which makes the view 1,000 times more detailed than that of the average modern-day picture. It literally means that everyone will be able to view the picture until the last brushstroke.
Image: www.googleartproject.com, ‘The Ambassadors’ by Hanz Holbein
Image: www.googleartproject.com, ‘The Birth of Venus’ by Botticelli
Image: www.googleartproject.com, ‘The Starry Night’ by Vincent van Gogh
Aside from exploring inside the museums, and taking a very close look at the paintings, the users of the projects will be able to save the painting or a fragment of it in their own custom-created gallery to be able to work with it later, which is a very useful tool for the amateurs and teachers of arts.
«We’re incredibly excited about this project—it’s our first step toward making great art more accessible, and we hope to add more museums and works of art in time. So whether you’re a student, an aspiring artist or a casual museum-goer, we hope the Google Art Project gives you a fun and unusual way to interact with art—and hopefully inspires you to visit the real thing,» said Amit Sood, the head of Google Art project in Official Google Blog earlier today.