According to Sympatico Tech News, you can now enjoy the finite details of some great works of art via Google Earth.

Starting Tuesday, visitors to the website of Madrid's Prado museum can use Google Earth to browse and zoom in on 14 of its most famous paintings, including Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, Diego Velazquez's Las Meninas, and Francisco de Goya's Third of May.

The partnership with Google is the first of its kind involving a museum.

"There is no better way to pay tribute to the great masters of ... art than to universalize knowledge of their works using optimum conditions," Prado director Miguel Zugaza said.

The images on Google Earth have a resolution 14,000 megapixels, far outshining a standard 10 megapixel camera.

The images were put together from 8,200 high-resolution photographs of the paintings. The project took 10 months to complete and was the brainchild of Google employee Clara Rivera.

"Normally, you have to stand a good distance away from these works, but this offers you the chance to see details that you could only see from a big ladder placed right beside them," she said.

For the full story, click here!

Posted at 11:47AM Jan 14, 2009 by Kevin P McAuliffe in Astound  |  Comments[0]