After placing 70 works of the Uffizi Gallery online in 2011, the Google Art Project has recently expanded the number of Italian museums involved in the initiative, including two from Tuscany.
Palazzo Vecchio | Photo by The Florentine
The works now available via Artwork View are from the Fondazione Musei Senesi in Siena and the Museo di Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, in addition to those housed in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan and the Musei di Strada Nuova in Genova. Some of the most prominent museums in the world, including the Tate Modern, the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art have participated in the Google Art Project, an initiative announced by the Web giant that brings virtual viewers closer than ever before to the participating museums’ international artistic heritage. Now, in addition to the 73 works from the Uffizi-the only Italian museum involved when the project launched in 2011-are 147 works by 12 artists from the Palazzo Vecchio Museum. Among the works that can now be explored virtually are the majestic frescos of the Salone de’ Cinquecento, the extraordinary maps of the Sala delle Carte Geografiche and the minute details of the frescoes in the Chapel of Duchess Eleonora di Toledo and Sala delle Udienze. The Google Art Project has also added 50 works by 35 artists from the collection of the Fondazione Musei Senesi, among them Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Allegory of Good Government in Siena’s Palazzo Pubblico (see TF 80). With the latest additions, the number of pieces on view through the Google Art Project has increased by over 10 percent, with 29 new art organizations from 14 countries putting their collections online, bringing the total number of collaborations to 180 institutions from 40 countries and 35,000 images of artworks. For more information, see www.googleartproject.com/it
