In the light of recent events, virtual "walks" through the most famous museums and galleries in the world have become extremely popular. Not only can you get a lot of pleasure from contemplating beautiful masterpieces created and collected in different parts of the world, so this does not require either getting up from the sofa or going on a long journey; most importantly, all these benefits are absolutely free.
1.12 museums in Dresden (Germany)
With just one click, you can launch an incredible video tour that brings together 12 museums at once that are part of the Dresden State Art Collection. Lovers of painting, sculpture, jewelry, weapons and other types of applied arts will be able to enjoy the immortal creations of Rubens, Gauguin, Rembrandt Durer, Titian, works of old masters, etc. It is no exaggeration to say that the masterpieces collected in these museums can compete with even the most eminent museums in the world - the Hermitage (St. Petersburg) and the Louvre (Paris).
Walking along virtual corridors, you can endlessly and without any restrictions admire the moon globe and pocket sundials, dolphin coins and an almost real crocodile that you can put on your hand, a strange porcelain pipe-head and even a gift skeleton from a joker-jeweler. And this is not the whole list of masterpieces that a video tour of 12 museums in Dresden can offer.
2. State Museum of Art in Copenhagen (Denmark)
Without packing your bags and spending your hard-earned flight and entrance tickets to the National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen in Copenhagen, you can also touch the beauty. This became possible due to the fact that the management of the museum allowed to digitize their collections, which had been collected for 700 years, and put them in the public domain. Now each of us can see the immortal works of Rubens, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Albrecht Durer, Amedeo Modigliani, Leger, Matisse, Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky and many other famous masters.
Reference: The virtual museum displays more than 25 thousand unique works, which can not only be seen in the public domain on the official website of the State Museum of Art, but also downloaded and used for free without additional permissions.
3. Museum of the Imperial Palace in Taipei (Taiwan)
The Imperial Palace Museum (National Palace Museum) in Taipei is famous for its invaluable collection of unique monuments of Chinese culture dating back to ancient times. The treasury of the museum contains exhibits from the Neolithic era to the last days of the Qin imperial dynasty. Thanks to modern technologies and the goodwill of the museum management, about 70 thousand masterpieces have already been digitized and are available for viewing online without any restrictions. This is very important, because for many years the Imperial Palace Museum has been the most visited place on the planet, and now everyone can see rare exhibits sitting in their favorite armchair.
4. Uffizi Gallery in Florence (Italy)
Thanks to the Medici family (15th-18th centuries), who patronized outstanding painters and sculptors for 4 centuries, they ultimately managed to collect and preserve priceless pieces of art. Despite the venerable age of the works themselves, they, by a happy coincidence, have been perfectly preserved to this day. Now unique masterpieces are in Florence, in the Uffizi Gallery (Florence and the Uffizi Gallery). Recently, an important event took place in this unique center of art, the digitization and creation of 3D projections (digitalization) of classical sculptures, which can now be viewed from any angle, have been completed.
5. Getty Museum in Los Angeles (California, USA)
The J. Paul Getty Museum is the largest art museum in California, located in Los Angeles, one of the first to introduce the practice of digitizing the works of art in its treasury. At the moment, more than 130 thousand images are already presented in its online archive, among them there are truly unique masterpieces of painting, jewelry, armor, manuscripts, sculptures, photography and much more. Despite the huge number of digitized exhibits, work is still ongoing and all the masterpieces that have become national property will soon be available to everyone, and absolutely free of charge.
6. Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg (Russia)
The collections of the first Russian museum of the Kunstkamera (Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences) also became available on the Web. Since its storehouses contain the most complete and interesting resources of the diversity of cultures of the peoples of the Old and New Worlds, online access to them opens up unique opportunities to immerse yourself in the unknown world of oddities, the most valuable anthropological and archaeological discoveries that cover a fairly extensive geographical and chronological range.
An interesting fact from the editors of Novate. Ru: The Kunstkamera (German "cabinet of rarities") is the oldest museum in Russia, founded in 1714, thanks to the order of Peter I and on the basis of his personal collections. Long before that, traveling across Western Europe, he acquired various oddities and wonders, placing them in the Summer Palace. After 5 years of active collecting, all the exhibits were exhibited for viewing in the Kikin Chambers, but this placement did not suit the sovereign and an order was given to build a museum, which was completed in 1728. This is the first building in the world that was created specifically for the needs of the museum.
7. British Museum in London (UK)
The main historical and archaeological museum of Great Britain is one of the largest museums in the world, with 8 million exhibits stored in its storerooms. Thanks to the colonial expansion of the British Empire, the collection of the National Public Museum was replenished with unique works of art and culture of many peoples of the world. Among them there are very rare ones, such as the Rosetta stone, which became the key to deciphering the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Here you can also admire the largest collection of Chinese porcelain in the West, the richest collection of engravings and paintings of the Renaissance, gold jewelry from ancient Roman Pompeii and other exhibits that are more than a thousand years old.
Thanks to modern technology, the online collection of the British Museum has been created, it has already included more than 3.5 million exhibits, and this is just the beginning. Considering the number of world masterpieces posted for the virtual collection of works of art, an advanced search was created, which allows you to select by date of creation, authors, stylistic orientation, technique of execution and many other parameters.
Not only museum exhibits are the property of mankind and arouse heightened interest among certain circles of people. Sometimes buildings that were erected in order to show the world unique masterpieces of applied art are attractions in themselves. Especially if they were created designed by the genius of deconstructivism, the master of modern architecture - Frank Gehry.