LA Times: A Digitized Collection of Hi-Res Art Images that Includes The Mona Lisa

Last week we posted about a MAJOR expansion of the Google Art digitization program.

Today, we’re pointing out an LA Times article titled, “Mona Lisa doesn’t need Google Art Project” that offers a quick look at another art digitization program and resource from France.

From the Article:

Since Google Art Project launched, art lovers have been asking why the world’s most famous painting — Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” — isn’t included on the site that features digitized images of works from select museum collections around the world.

The simple answer is that the “Mona Lisa” and some other works from the Louvre Museum in Paris are already available online, but on a different art site, one that’s organized by a French cultural body known as the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France (the Center for Research and Restoration of Museums of France).

“Mona Lisa” can be viewed on the C2RMF site in super-high-resolution, allowing you to zoom into the painting down to a granular level where you can view tiny cracks and other imperfections. Other viewable paintings by the Renaissance master include “The Virgin and Child with St. Anne” and “Saint Jean-Baptiste.”

The French site also includes works by Raphael, Titian, Watteau, Van Gogh and more. The paintings come from the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, Musée de l’Orangerie and the Musée Rodin.

Direct to C2RMF Web Site (in French) ||| Mechanically Translated Site (via Bing) ||| Mechanically Translated Version of Site (via Google)

Read the Complete Article