Fascinating initiative by Google to take the concept of its StreetView system and throw it at some of the world’s major city cultural hotspots.
The recently launched Google Art Project combines the same functionality as StreetView (on-screen, 3D navigation and zoom tools) but within 17 major art venues.
Users can walk around various rooms within each venue and examine the works close up – the photography is at a very high level of definition, so almost all of the installations are incredibly clear on the screen.
As well as the walking tool, users can also find detailed information about selected works in each venue, including the history of the piece, artist and other notes.
There are links to other pieces by the same artist in the same and other museums, as well as automatic searches for more information on platforms such as Google Scholar.
The museums featured in the system include:
- National Gallery, London (pic above).
- Palace of Versailles, Paris.
- Metrpolitan Museum of Art, New York (pic below).
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (pic below).
- Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
- The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
Google says the initial launch will be start of a wider project to add more museums and works of art in the future, aiming at tourists, students and artists.
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[...] Google says it is taking panoramic shots which “may be stitched together into a panoramic view” — think Streetview for inside a property (similar — but far less complex — to the recent museum Streetview project). [...]