(The Dutch Proverbs in Gemaldegalerie)
Google did it again!
If you did love the technology of Google Street View, you’ll probably be excited about visiting the museums worldwide through your computer. Google Art Project has taken zoomable shots of 17 museums (including the amazing Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid) across the globe.
(Another favorite, Ophelia in Tate Britain)
While I prefer seeing the pieces in person just like our visits to Museum of the Filipino People/ National Museum of the Philippines and Museu de Macao, I can say that I immensely enjoyed navigating through each work of art online. In fact, I didn’t notice that I already created seven (7) artwork collections, which I named as follows (just click the link to view): Architecture and Landscape, Still Life, People and Portraiture, Historical Accounts, Symbolisms, Statues and Collections, and Favorites. I suggest that you create an artwork collection and label each painting/work of art that you like as you see it. You may put temporary labels since you can rename it anytime. That way, you do the bookmarking of the good great pieces based on initial impression. Your own “collections” or I’d rather call “albums or photo sets” are shareable.
(The Artist’s Mother, Louis Eysen in Alte Nationalgalerie. I liked how they hanged the books on the wall.)
(Whirlwind, Fillipp Malyavin in The State Tretyakov Gallery)
Since online viewing of these works of art is attractive, one of the initial calculated risks is the possible decrease in number of visitors to the museums covered by this project. However, Google Project Art actually aims to augment the marketability of visits to the museums by encouraging us to appreciate art by making it (digitally) accessible. As we do our walkthrough of each museum, i.e. navigate the website, we will notice the added information though the video, audio and biography. After some extent of appreciation, they hope that the viewers will be more enthusiastic to see these in person. If we have the means, why not eh (*thinks about plane tickets*)? But as of the moment, I am more than pleased about the quality viewing I got. I think that it was an enriching and well-spent manhours I had today. I had an art feast.
PS. Whether our own national museum (of the Philippines) will be covered by something like this in the future or not, please take time to visit it first-hand.
Credits: All images were screencaptures from Google Art Project website.
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