Art Project by Google offers some new methods for viewing and experiencing museum collections online, as well as a single portal to access multiple collections from one location. While certainly not comprehensive in scope, it allows users to access over 1,000 images from seventeen major art museums and collections including the Met, Uffizi, Hermitage and the Tate.
For those of you who enjoy using Google’s Streetview while browsing maps, Art Project makes this technology available for indoor use – allowing users to experience a virtual walk-through of the museum galleries. This works particularly well at the Palace of Versailles where you can walk through each salon and get a 360 degree view of both the walls and the ceiling.
As you navigate through a gallery space, you can click on a painting to get a closer look. The ones that reveal a plus sign when you hover over it allow you to view a high-resolution image. When you click on the plus sign, you will leave the virtual gallery and go to a separate page to view a zoomable image – click on the museum name at the top to get back to the gallery space. If you get a bit lost while navigating through the galleries (like I did), simply click on the floor plan link on the right hand side to re-orient yourself.
