Something Beautiful

Google Art Project (v. 2)

So, you've heard about the updated Google Art Project, right? This extraordinary undertaking appeared in version 1.0 in February 2011. Version 2.0, just made public, is a substantial expansion. Last year only 17 museums were represented. This year a grand total of 151 institutions and collections make appearances. More than 32,000 artworks are included! (Further background is available in this New York Times article.)

You can explore the art through several approaches:

- Artists 

- Artworks

- Collections

As one might expect with Google, there is also a Search feature.

 

A few works from the Louvre

Here I hope to identify works from the Louvre site that I found moving for one reason or another.

To start with --

Baltazar Castiglione, ca. 1514-15, by Raphael 

Marquise de Pompadour, 1755, by M.-Q. de la Tour (pastel)

Marquesa de la Solana, before 1800, by Goya

 

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The Louvre

The Louvre museum site has long been a special one.  And is apparently going to get still better on about June 7th.   Wonder what they have in store for us? 

In the meantime, the place to start has always been the Collections page, and then the "Selected Works" section for each of the eight main collections.   

A good place to go first might be to the Prints & Drawings collection (5 pages).

Then, perhaps, to the Objets d'Art collection (6 pages).

And finally to the glories of the site --     
        the Sculptures collection (10 pages); and        
        the Paintings collection (13 pages).

Another approach would be to go directly to one of the four Antiquities collections --

Islamic art (1 page,n15 works)
Oriental antiquities (3 pages)
Egyptian antiquities (7 pages)
Greek, Etruscan, Roman antiquities (13 pages)