Stroke of the brush: Italian artworks go online

Associated Press ^ | October 1, 2010 | Unknown

[decimon]

ROME – Imagine being so close to Botticelli's Venus that you can see the strands of her blond hair, the shades of pink in her cheeks, the cracks in the centuries-old paint.

That sensation is now just a click away.

This week, an Italian company has put high-resolution images online of "The Birth of Venus" and five other masterpieces from the Uffizi gallery in Florence, including works by Caravaggio and Leonardo da Vinci.

[decimon]

This is the work of a private company and is copyrighted. And the pics are a lot of bandwidth for many FReepers.

http://www.haltadefinizione.com.

It's pretty neat to be able to zoom in to see the fine detail of the paintings.

[Kozak]

I can imagine it quite easily, I was at the Uffizi in April.
I can’t recommend Florence enough. It’s a wonderful city, with amazing sights and experiences around every corner.

[agere_contra]

That is amazing. Getting close enough to Ritratto di Eleonora di Toledo to see the brushwork inside the pearls.

[call meVeronica]

bump for k

[Tax-chick]

Wow, you can see how he did the different levels of shiny in her hairnet and the ornament on her dress.

[Leg Olam]

Wonderful! Botticelli IS the painter’s painter.

[agere_contra]

Those deft little highlights on the cords of the net which accurately mimic the visual field. Astonishing.

And check out her left cuff with the fall of the cloth into shadow - what a treat!

It’s like a window has opened in the world of sight.

But hey, modern art is great too.

[Tax-chick]

On that cuff, he shows where there’s a knot in the back side of the blackwork embroidery. Dang. You almost expect to see individual threads of cat hair somewhere ;-).

[newheart]

Thanks for the post. These are amazing.

Check out the reflections in the individual pearls in the Ritratto di Eleonora di Toledo. Incredible.

[agere_contra]

LOL, good eye TC.

[Tax-chick]

I used to spend my time in art museums with my nose a little too close to the portraits, looking at the stitching on their clothes.

[MattinNJ]

b for later

[Constitution Day]

This is amazing! Thanks so much for posting this.

[philled]

Very cool. Soon to be displayed on my 50 inch plasma tv. They will be the best thing ever to be on it!

[decimon]

Paint chip ping.

[SunkenCiv]

· GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach · · join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·
	Antiquity Journal  & archive  Archaeologica  Archaeology  Archaeology Channel  BAR  Bronze Age Forum  Discover  Dogpile  Eurekalert  Google  LiveScience  Mirabilis.ca  Nat Geographic  PhysOrg  Science Daily  Science News  Texas AM  Yahoo  Excerpt, or Link only?	Thanks decimon. Just adding, not pinging the list. One question I've always had is, who was this Bertha Venus person? To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
· History topic · history keyword · archaeology keyword · paleontology keyword · · Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword ·

[SunkenCiv]

Great, now I’m jealous. :’)

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.haltadefinizione.com

[decimon]

...who was this Bertha Venus person?

Dunno, but there ain't no 'arm in the babe.