I’ve always thought museum websites were a great option for people who can’t afford the time or money required to travel to the museum in person. They feature digital tours and closer shots of the art than you would even be able to see in person.
Well now you don’t even have to travel the distance it takes to move your mouse to the URL bar. Google has started the Google Art Project, a new web site that collects art and museum images from around the world.
Each image can be zoomed in on and has a sidebar with history, viewing notes, related media, and other relevant information. There is also information on the museums themselves, include video and images of the museum layouts.
While Google has only partnered with 17 museums so far and within those museums mad only a small selection of art pieces, this looks like a promising project. I can see it being useful to beginning art history majors, art enthusiasts, and anyone interested in art who can’t travel to a foreign museum.
For me, even though I’ve been to Versailles it was nice to be able to zoom in on art pieces I was too far or too hurried to really examine.
