The Art Project woos you to create your own collection,  invites with ‘Create an Artwork Collection’ features that allows users to save specific views of any of over 1000 artworks to build your own personalised portfolio, where comments can be added to each painting and the whole collection can then be shared with friends and family.

The devil however is in the detail. Gaberluzine has tried to create a portfolio, but created five separte ones and can't work out how to collect them together, as saving and moving from one picture to another means the older portfolio seems to get left behind.

His other gripe is that of focus, where the Google approach  is bring a very horizontal feature to detail, but with  no ability that Gaberlunzie can grasp, to create a vertical slant at some of the most divine detail around.

Perhaps with more time Gaberlunzie will master this challenge and the problems of search which are not helped by an 'ah, try  the search section" but seems to be floating more information panels.

But For the time being he's browsing through what he stumbles on, with his faithful and forever adored SnapzPro X, taking the angles and the views that he really does want and thanks all the museums and Google for their amazing wonderful work.

Just consider what must have been involved 
since 2009 as Google has worked with 17 art museums including, Altes Nationalgalerie, Freer Gallery of Art Smithsonian, National Gallery (London), Frick Collection, Gemäldegalerie, Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, Museo Reina Sofia, Museo Thyseen - Bornemisza, Museum Kampa, Palace of Versailles, Rijksmuseum, State Hermitage Museum, State Tretyakov Gallery, Tate, Uffizi and Van Gogh Museum.

The results of this spectacular partnership, which can be explored has involved taking a selection of super high resolution images of famous artworks, as well as collating more than a thousand other images into one place.

Each museum worked in extensive collaboration with Google, providing expertise and guidance from choosing which collections to feature; to advising on the best angle to capture photos; to what kind of information should accompany the artwork.



Works of art included in the project range from Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’ to Chris Ofili’s ‘No Woman, No Cry’, Cezanne’s post impressionist works to Byzantine iconography. From the ceilings of Versailles to ancient Egyptian temples, a collection of Whistlers to Rembrandts all over the globe. In total, 486 artists from around the world have been included.



Key features:


Explore museums with Street View technology: using this feature, people can move around the gallery virtually, selecting works of art that interest them and clicking to discover more or diving into the high resolution images, where available.  The info panel allows people to read more about an artwork, find more works by that artist and watch related YouTube videos.


A specially designed Street View ‘trolley’ took 360 degree images of the interior of selected galleries which were then stitched together, enabling smooth navigation of over 385 rooms within the museums.

Super high resolution feature artworks: each of the 17 museums selected one artwork to be photographed in extraordinary detail using super high resolution or ‘gigapixel’ photo capturing technology. Each such image contains around 7bn pixels, enabling the viewer to study details of the brushwork and patina beyond that possible with the naked eye.

Hard to see details suddenly become clear such as the tiny Latin couplet which appears in Hans Holbein the Younger’s ‘The Merchant Georg Gisze’  Or the people hidden behind the tree in Ivanov’s ‘The Apparition
seen up close before, such as the miniaturized people in the river of El Greco’s ‘View of Toledo’ or individual dots in Seurat’s ‘Grandcamp, Evening’


Google people behind the art
 
"The last 20 years have transformed and democratised the world of art - with better access to museums in many countries and a proliferation of public artworks, says (right) Nelson Mattos, VP Engineering, Google

"We’re delighted to have been able to collaborate with leading art museums around the world to create this state of the art
technology.  We hope it will inspire ever more people, wherever they live, to access and explore art - in new and amazing levels of detail.”

"This initiative started as a ‘20% project’ by a group of Googlers passionate about making art more accessible online. Together with our museum partners around the world we have created what we hope will be a fascinating resource for art-lovers, students and casual museum goers alike - inspiring them to one day visit the real thing." (left) Amit Sood, Head of Art Project, Google.

Larger picture great graphic: smaller 'hand' focused crop!