Google earth, a software that enables you to look up any place, or address, in the world, and then see it from an aerial view (and sometimes even from the ground) has started to scan art work in Madrid's Prado museum. The detail is amazing, as Time reports that "resolution so fine — 14,000 megapixels — that not only individual brushstrokes but even the seams in the canvas and cracks in the varnish are visible." Such paintings as Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights and The Family of Felipe IV, or Las Meninas by Velázquez can be seen with Google earth.
Get the software here:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/prado/
or
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/mpl?moduleurl=http://pradomuseum.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/themasterpieces.xml&utm_campaign=en_GB&utm_medium=lp&utm_source=en_GB-lp-emea-gb-gns-mp&utm_term=prado
Time article here:
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1871656,00.html
painting and drawing tips and fine art
