Admonitions Scroll (detail). [Screenshot of Google Cultural Institute site]
Fans of the British Museum are now able to avoid the crowds to enjoy some 5,000 high-resolution images of the museum's collection online, including the prestigious Chinese painting Admonitions Scroll, thanks to the Google Street View technology.
The Admonitions Scroll is one of the most important paintings in the world. It was originally painted by Gu Kaizhi (about AD 345-406), regarded as the father of classical Chinese figure painting. The scroll's full title, Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies (Nüshi zhen tu), indicates the work's moralising tone. In the scroll, the protagonist, the court instructress, advises the ladies of the palace on correct behavior.
The original painting is now lost, and the scroll made during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and now kept by the British Museum is the closest copy and thus has become visitors' must-see artwork. However, this antique is now so fragile that it can only be seen for a few months of the year at the museum.
After being photographed over three days by Google, the scroll, like the other 5,000 or so artworks, has been captured at "gigapixel" resolution and now allows viewers to zoom in at the level of the individual fibers.
Some other museums and heritage sites in the UK have previously used the Street View technology to showcase one-off exhibitions or part of a collection. And the British Museum is the largest institution in the world to open its entire collection to Google Street View.
The British Museum already has 6.7 million visitors annually. Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, said the project was not intended to replace the experience of a real-life museum but add to it.
The museum's website has already employed web technology, putting 3 million images of its artifacts online. But it is said the Google project would tackle the “library catalogue” problem, allowing viewers to navigate its collection much more easily.
