Thursday 16 June 2011

Google’s New Art Project Provides High-Definition Tours of International Galleries

You’d love to see Rembrandt’s stunning work of art, “Return of the Prodigal Son”—but it’s housed in The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, which isn’t exactly just down the road. If you’re a fine art connisseur, there are probably countless paintings and sculptures you’d love to study up close, but unless you have a round-the-world airplane ticket in your hand, you probably won’t get a chance to see more than a small fraction of the works you love in person.

But if you can’t go, just Google it. The web giant has just launched a new site called Art Project, which offers close-up, high resolution tours of 17 renowned art galleries, including the Hermitage, the MOMA, and Tate Britain using Google’s Street View technology. On the website, you can virtually go down the museums’ halls, stopping and zooming in on any artwork that appeals to you. The collection features 486 artists, including Botticelli, Cezanne, and modern sculptor Chris Ofili. You may not be able to smell the paint, but you can get close enough to see the cracks in it—without paying for a flight to Russia.

Google Street View