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Not sure whether to think of this development as a thrilling breakthrough in the accessibility of art or yet another scary, scary reason why I will never be leaving my desk again. Now in Google Earth, tour the Prado Museum and a selection of its masterworks without crossing the Atlantic.
If you aren't already a Google Earth user, you can see some of the images online at Google Maps.
Check out the YouTube video above for more information. (Watch in hi-quality if you want to be really impressed.)
From Very Short List:
Last month, the Prado became the first museum to open its collection to Google’s mapping technology, allowing you to take a virtual trip to Madrid and see super-mega-resolution views of 14 masterpieces.
The paintings include Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, Rubens’s Three Graces, Fra Angelico’s Annunciation, and El Greco’s Nobleman with his Hand on his Chest, and you can zoom in so closely, it’s like putting your nose right up to the canvas (without angering security guards). Other museums, take note: It’s time to Google yourselves.
Megan Voeller is Creative Loafing’s visual art critic. She teaches at the University of Tampa and The Art Institute of Tampa and blogs at Artsqueeze.com.
This article appears in Feb 18-24, 2009.