Hans Holbein The Ambassadors

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AN INTRODUCTION
Harrison (2010) explains that to see a painting a viewer should try to put herself in the place of the audience it was made for. Because paintings were not created to be seen by the general public until the late 18th century or to be displayed specifically in a museum setting until the 20th century.
Different media have different strengths and weaknesses and create a different experience for the viewer. This essay aims to identify some of those differences by comparing Hans Holbein’s original work ‘The Ambassadors’ currently displayed at the National Gallery in London to a gigapixel image version created by Google Art Project.
The essay also look at whether Art Project’s platform and contents are fit for scholarly use or if …show more content…
It travelled back to England when it was sold many years later to an art dealer in Paris by Dinteville’s family. Finally, it was acquired by the National Gallery in 1890.
According to the information from the Gallery’s Manuscript Catalogue that Wyld (1998) quotes, the painting was immediately displayed and not cleaned and restored until the following year. When it was displayed again it looked very different.
Wyld explains the conditions of the painting proved to be worse than expected. Despite the restoration done in 1891 followed the standards of the time, it was not ideal. The paint kept presenting problems and the panel which is formed by oak planks began to split. A full restoration was carried out in 1997 before the exhibition to celebrate Holbein’s 500th anniversary. The Framing Department also decided to replace its 1950s frame with one that resembles the 16th century Northern European frames.
GOOGLE ART PROJECT AND THE GIGAPIXEL IMAGE
Google Art Project (GAP) started a 20% time project when Amit Sood and some of his colleagues at the search engine giant decided to make art accessible to the general public. They contacted several institutions around the world and managed to get 17 of them to collaborate by selecting some of their art works to be digitized and made available online (Sood, …show more content…
At the centre of the page, the user sees the painting. On its right the zoom option and on its left a details section which can expanded and includes a description of the painting and the symbolism used, a biography of the painter and related YouTube videos. While the written information is only available in English, there are videos in French as well.
Next to the details there are links to other works by Hans Holbein and other art at the National Gallery, as well as icons to compare paintings again or add them to the user’s galleries and an orange man icon which takes the user to the Google Street View of the room the painting is in.
On the Street View pages there is a floor plan to navigate the gallery. On its right the image of the room with arrows that allows the user to move around, a zoom option and square icons next to the paintings which contain a link to
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