They say that if one examines each exhibit in the Hermitage alone for one minute, then it will take eight years to examine the entire collection! There are so many amazing museums in the world that a lifetime is not enough to visit everything!
Fortunately, in the age of the Internet, you can visit the world's greatest museums from the comfort of your own home. Here are the top ten best virtual museums.
The Louvre is not only one of the largest art museums in the world, but it is also one of the most iconic historical sites in Paris. The museum offers tours of some of the most important and popular exhibits, such as, for example, its Egyptian antiquities. You can see the 360-degree panorama of the museum, and even look closely at the rare artifacts around. If you click on the exhibits, you can get more information about their history.
2. Solomon Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA (www.guggenheim.org)
The architecture of the Guggenheim building itself, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is quite impressive. You might have seen him in the movie Men in Black. However, you don't need to visit Fifth Avenue to view some of the museum's priceless art. The Museum has made available some of its collections and exhibits on the Internet, designed to show the art of entire civilizations in Africa, Eurasia, America.
3. National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA (www.nga.gov)
Founded in 1937, the National Gallery of Art is free and open to the general public. For those not currently in Washington, the museum provides virtual tours of its gallery and exhibitions. The collection includes about 1200 paintings (the canvases of Italian, French and American masters are especially widely represented), one of the world's best collections of Italian Renaissance paintings, works of the Dutch and Spanish Baroque.
4. British Museum, London, UK (www.britishmuseum.org)
The British Museum is one of the largest museums in the world, the second most visited art museum, after the Louvre. The museum was originally conceived as a collection of antiquities from Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Together with archaeological finds and art objects that were brought to London from all over the world by the colonial agents of the British Empire, the museum was replenished with drawings, engravings, medals, coins and books of various eras. Today the collection of the museum has more than eight million objects.
5. National Museum of Natural History, Washington, USA (www.mnh.si.edu)
The National Museum of Natural History was founded in 1910 and is run by the famous Smithsonian Institution. The museum's collection includes over 126 million specimens of plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, as well as archaeological and cultural artifacts. It employs 185 professional natural history specialists.
Today it is one of the most visited museums in the world. The virtual museum offers a glimpse of its beautiful treasures. Internet visitors have already managed to appreciate its 360-degree panoramas of its entire territory, including the hall of mammals, insects, the dinosaur zoo and the hall of paleobiology.
6. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA (www.metmuseum.org)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the largest and fourth most visited art museums in the world. Today the permanent collection contains over two million works of art. There are quite a few collections of different types in the Metropolitan. Among them, for example, the work of photographers Walker Evans, Diana Arbus, Alfred Stiglitz and others. The museum has also partnered with to make available artwork that is not shown in its own online collection for viewing.
7. Imperial Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan (www.npm.gov.tw)
The Imperial Palace Museum is the seventh most visited museum in the world. The museum was opened on October 10, 1925 in Beijing, on the territory of the Forbidden City. In February 1948, during the Chinese Civil War, a significant part of his collection was transported to Taiwan. A total of 2,972 boxes were shipped by sea with exhibits from the Beijing Museum, which contained the most valuable works of art. Currently, the museum contains about 93 thousand monuments of Chinese calligraphy, porcelain and jade items, other semi-precious stones, paintings - landscapes and portraits, and 562 thousand old books and documents. This number includes 6,044 bronze items, 5,200 paintings, 3,000 calligraphy works, 12,104 jade items, 3,200 lacquered or enameled items, as well as a significant number of old coins, fabrics, jewelry, etc.
NASA offers free virtual tours of its space center in Houston. It's better to see once than hear a hundred times.
9. Vatican Museums, Rome, Italy (www.mv.vatican.va)
The Vatican Museums have an extensive art collection. You can start a virtual tour of the museum grounds and see unique exhibits, including the famous frescoes by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel.
Google has partnered with over 60 museums and galleries around the world to help users find and view outstanding works online in high definition. With Google Street View technology, the visitor can explore collections such as the White House in the US, the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar, and even the São Paulo Street Art Museum in Brazil. Check out full list of museums - you can visit them all on the Internet.
Louvre, Metropolitan Museum, Tate Gallery, Hermitage - how to get around the most interesting museums in the world without leaving the couch
Many world museums have created their own virtual tours, and on Google Art Project collected masterpieces of world art and presented virtual tours of galleries and historical sites around the world.
Louvre (Louvre), Paris
Most Parisians consider the Louvre to be the city's main attraction. It houses more than 350,000 works of art: from ancient Egyptian, ancient Greek and ancient Roman to French decorative and applied art and, of course, a collection of works of sculptors and a world collection of paintings.
To get to the Louvre without a queue, just go to the online archive of the museum: there are convenient ways to search (by the name of the author, title of the work, technique of performance, museum hall, etc.). You will also find a list of links to thematic sites dedicated to individual exhibitions.
Venus de Milo
Leonardo da Vinci. "Mona Lisa"
Tate Gallery, London
The Tate Gallery is an art museum, the world's largest collection of British art from 1500 to the present day. It is part of the Tate group of museums.
On the site you will find a glossary, a section of blogs and films (for example, a film dedicated to Louise Bourgeois), an alphabetical catalog. It is also possible to plan your visit.
Hermitage, St. Petersburg
The largest in Russia and one of the largest art and cultural-historical museums in the world was first opened in 1764 as a private collection of Catherine II. Today, the main exhibition area occupies five buildings located along the Neva embankment.
The site has a convenient thematic search: there are sections "Collections", "Masterpieces", "Permanent exhibitions", "Plan a route". You can also create your own collection or view the collections of other users.
Leonardo da Vinci. "Madonna Litta"
British museum (British Museum) London
The main historical and archaeological museum of Great Britain is one of the largest museums in the world, it is the second most visited museum in the world after the Louvre. Its online collection is also one of the largest, with over 3.5 million exhibits. It is not surprising that there are also a lot of advanced search options on the site, more than twelve.
Whitney Museum of American Art (Whitney Museum of American Art) , New York
One of the largest collections of contemporary American art (XX-XXI centuries), the museum was founded in 1931 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney - the exhibition is based on her own collection of 700 works of art. Today it houses painting, sculpture, graphics, installations, photography and video art.
The site has an advanced search, an alphabetical catalog of artists, and the description of each work indicates on which floor of the museum it can be found.
Prado, Madrid
One of the main values \u200b\u200bof Madrid is the National Museum of Painting and Sculpture, the largest art collection in Spain, based on the royal and ecclesiastical collections. Today, the museum's collection contains more than 8600 paintings, but due to lack of space, unfortunately, less than 2000 are exhibited. The total number of works in the store is about 30 thousand.
On the site you will find photos of more than 11 thousand works. There is an artist search (with an alphabetical index) and a thematic search.
The National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen
Denmark's largest history and culture museum is housed in an 18th century building in the center of Copenhagen. Here you can follow the history of Denmark from ancient times to the present day, as well as “go around the whole world” - from Greenland to South America.
The site has not only an online collections section, but also many videos with detailed descriptions of phenomena and exhibits.
The famous "Sun chariot"
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The fourth most visited museum in the world, founded in 1870 by a group of businessmen and art lovers. It is based on three private collections - 174 masterpieces of European painting. Today the museum is proud of its collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works.
The museum's online archive contains about 400 thousand works (many different filters are available in the advanced search), images can even be downloaded and used for non-commercial purposes.
Vincent Van Gogh. "Self-portrait with a straw hat"
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
It houses the largest collection of works by Vincent Van Gogh (over 200 paintings), as well as works by his contemporaries - Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, Claude Monet and others.
In the online archive, you can find not only the masterpieces themselves, but also explanatory videos. There is a search by artist, genre and creation date.
Vincent Van Gogh. "Sunflowers"
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
MoMA is considered to be one of the best museums in the world: its six-story building is filled to capacity with masterpieces of art. The most valuable exhibits are Monet's Water Lilies, Picasso's Maidens of Avignon and Van Gogh's Starry Night.
Of the 200 thousand works collected in the museum, 68 thousand are presented on the site. You can use filters by the period of creation of the work, the direction of art or the date the masterpiece was acquired by the museum.
Andy Warhole. Mick Jagger portrait
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
The Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna was built in the 19th century to house the imperial collections. The opening took place in 1891, and today its halls display many masterpieces of Western art, as well as collections dedicated to the ancient world and ancient Egyptian art.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder. "Tower of Babel"
Solomon Guggenheim Museum (Guggenheim Museum), New York
One of the leading collections of contemporary art in the world and perhaps the most unusual museum building in New York (an inverted pyramidal tower by Frank Lloyd Wright). The collection includes a huge number of works of art from the late 19th century to the present day under the motto "consistent avant-garde".
The site contains 1,700 works by 575 artists, including Paul Cézanne, Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Wassily Kandinsky and many others.
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
The largest art museum in California, founded by oil magnate J. Paul Getty: after his death, he left a multi-billion dollar fortune for the needs of the museum.
The site contains about 10 thousand Getty exhibits (works marked with a special icon are available for download), there is an advanced search and links to thematic channels on YouTube.
National Museum of New Zealand (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa), Wellington
The main focus of the National New Zealand Museum is natural history: under this theme, the museum displays collections of different nationalities and descriptions of local cultures. In addition, here you can see herbariums and skeletons of ancient animals, and the special pride of the museum is a giant squid: a specimen 10 meters long and weighing 500 kg.
The online section on the museum's website contains more than 30 thousand photos available for download, each exhibit is accompanied by a short description.
Whale skeleton
There is no doubt that any historical artifact or work of art is best seen with one's own eyes. But not always and not everyone has the opportunity to travel a lot around the world. Fortunately, today, in the modern digital age, it is possible to visit a number of the most famous museums in the world without leaving your own home. In our review, we have collected some of the museums that invite you on virtual tours.
1. Louvre
The Louvre is not only one of the world's largest art museums, it is also one of the most iconic historical monuments in Paris. The museum offers free online tours during which you can see some of the most famous and popular exhibits of the Louvre, such as Egyptian relics.
2. Solomon Guggenheim Museum
While it might be worth seeing with your own eyes the unique architecture of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Guggenheim Building, you don't need to fly to New York to view some of the museum's priceless exhibits. Online can be seen works by Franz Marc, Pete Mondrian, Picasso and Jeff Koons.
3. National Gallery of Art
Founded in 1937 National Gallery of Art open to free visits. For those who cannot come to Washington, the museum provides virtual tours of its galleries and exhibitions. For example, you can admire such masterpieces as paintings by Van Gogh and sculptures from ancient Angkor. "
4. British Museum
The collection of the British Museum has over eight million items. Today the world-famous museum from London has introduced the ability to view online some of his exhibitions, such as "Kenga: Textiles from Africa" \u200b\u200band "Objects from the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum". In collaboration with the Google Cultural Institute, the British Museum offers virtual tours using Google Street View technology.
5. National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution
The National Museum in Washington, DC, which is one of the most visited museums in the world, offers the opportunity to look at its beautiful treasures through an online virtual tour. An online guide welcomes spectators to the rotunda, followed by online tour (360-degree view) through the Hall of Mammals, Hall of Insects, Dinosaur Zoo and Hall of Paleobiology.
6. Metropolitan Museum
The Met is home to over two million works of art, but you don't have to travel to New York to admire them. The museum's website has virtual tours of some of the most impressive works, including paintings by Van Gogh, Jackson Pollock, and Giotto di Bondone. In addition, Metropolitan also collaborates with Google Cultural Institute to make even more works available for viewing.
7. Dali Theater-Museum
Located in the Catalan city of Figueres, the Dali Theater Museum is entirely dedicated to the art of Salvador Dali. It contains many exhibitions and exhibits related to every stage of Dali's life and career. The artist himself is also buried here. The museum offers virtual tours for some of their exhibitions.
8. NASA
NASA offers virtual tours of its space center in Houston. An animated robot named "Audima" acts as a guide.
9. Vatican Museums
The Vatican Museums, which have been curated by the popes for centuries, have an extensive collection of art and classical sculpture. You can take advantage of the opportunity around the museum to see some of the most iconic exhibits on your computer screen, including the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo.
10. National Museum of Women's History
The leadership of the National Museum of Women's History in Alexandria, Virginia, claims the museum was founded to inspire the study of the past and shape the future "by integrating the history and culture of women's life in the United States." In mode virtual tour] exhibits in the museum showcasing the lives of women during World War II and the struggle for women's rights throughout American history.
11. National mezey of the USAF
National Museum of the United States Air Force is located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. It houses a huge collection of military weapons and aircraft, including the presidential planes of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. The museum also offers free virtual tours of its territory, during which you can see decommissioned aircraft from World War II, Vietnam War and the Korean War.
12. Google Art Project
To help users find and view important works of art online in high definition and detail, Google collaborates with more than 60 museums and galleries around the world, archiving and documenting priceless works of art, and providing virtual tours of museums that use Google Street View technology.
Art is always inspiring. It reminds of the diversity of the world and its beauty. It is a pity that we often do not have enough time and money for museums, where masterpieces of past centuries are expected. How to visit the most famous museums in the world without queues and tickets? How to visit the Louvre, Prado and the Hermitage in one weekend?
How to catch an excursion to get a good look at the skull of a Neanderthal man or a painting on an ancient Greek vase? How to show your child paintings by famous artists? The answer to all questions is the same - to go on a virtual tour. Incredible Google Art Project , offers such tours to the best museums.
"Starry Night" by Vincent Van Gogh
One of the most famous and most visited museums in the world. In it you can see not only the works of our time, but also the originals of "Starry Night" by Vincent Van Gogh and "Hope II" by Gustav Klimt. The virtual tour offers unusual exhibits of our time: original costumes, photographs, posters, sculptures and psychogeographic paintings by Mark Bradford.
Hans Holbein "Ambassadors"
You can definitely spend the whole day here! The museum contains paintings from the XIII to XX centuries. We recommend appreciating "Madonna in the Rocks" by Leonardo da Vinci, "Venus and Mars" by Sandro Botticelli and "Allegory of Prudence" by Titian. These and other masterpieces are available in a virtual exhibition.
"At the Conservatory" Edouard Manet
The German museum contains paintings of the 19th century in the style of classicism, romanticism, impressionism and early modernism. Particularly noteworthy are the canvases of Edouard Manet "At the Conservatory", Gustave Courbet "Wave" and Caspar David Friedrich "Monk by the Sea". You can walk around the entire museum complex. True, some paintings were left without signatures.
"Battle of Aboukir" by Antoine-Jean Gros
A place where everyone will feel the royal grandeur. With the help of the Art Project, you can not only look at the famous paintings (The Death of Marat by Jacques Louis David, The Meeting of Eleazar with Reveka by Paolo Veronese, Hercules Supports the Victory by Jean Jouvenet), but also track how one of the most magnificent stories. The virtual tour also offers a walk through the realistic park.
"Girl with Peaches" Valentin Serov
Art lovers will not find a more complete collection of works by artists from Russia than here. Our favorites are The Black Sea by Ivan Aivazovsky, The Emerald Necklace by Viktor Borisov-Musatov, The Lady in Blue by Konstantin Somov, and The Girl with Peaches by Valentin Serov.
"Hungarian Gypsy" Amrita Sher-Gil
Want to know more about Indian art? Then choose this museum. Pictures will help you get to know a completely different culture. The museum displays not only the works of Indian artists, but also paintings by Europeans that were created in India. It is worth paying attention to Amrita Sher-Gil, who is often compared to Frida Kahlo.
"The Birth of Venus" by Sandro Botticelli
The most visited museum in Italy. It seems that Sandro Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" can be watched for hours! Also in the Uffizi you can see "The Adoration of the Magi" and "Annunciation" by Leonardo da Vinci, "Flora" by Titian, "Musical Angel" by Rosso Fiorentino and other famous paintings.
"Van Gogh paints sunflowers" Paul Gauguin
The number one place for all admirers of the Dutch post-impressionist art. By the way, the museum in Amsterdam will offer to look not only at the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh ("Sunflowers", "The Potato Eaters", "The Bedroom in Arles"), but also at the works of his talented contemporaries (for example, Pablo Picasso and Paul Gauguin).
"Guernica" by Pablo Picasso
Not only an incredible art museum, but also a great library. We advise you to evaluate the works of the avant-garde artist Juan Gris ("Anis del Mono Bottle", "Open Window", "Violin and Guitar"). The main exhibit of the museum is "Guernica" by Pablo Picasso.
A museum that will tell you almost everything about British art. Here are collected works from 1500 to the present day. We love to drop by to see again Ophelia by John Everett Millais, Nocturne by James Whistler and Blizzard by William Turner.
The Chapel of Sainte-Chapelle is not really a museum, but one of the most famous and amazing monuments of Gothic architecture. Its incredibly beautiful stained glass windows tell the story of mankind: a total of 1,113 scenes are depicted here. It is surprising that many of the stained glass windows that can be seen in Sainte-Chapelle today have survived from the 13th century, even surviving the French Revolution (while many of the Christian relics that were kept in the chapel were destroyed). An online tour allows you to get an idea of \u200b\u200bthe beauty of this place, however, if you want to take a closer look at the stained glass windows, it is better to visit the chapel in person.
As part of a virtual excursion, you can visit only a few rooms of the main historical and archaeological museum of Britain - those located on its first floor. But many exhibits can be viewed in large format. Michelangelo's collection of graphics and prints deserves special attention.
This is the number one place for all admirers of the work of the surrealist artist Salvador Dali. A virtual tour is available on the museum's website. You can only walk through some exhibition halls, but don't be in a hurry to get upset: the virtual exhibition features such famous works by Dali as "The Room with the Face of Mae West" and "Rainy Taxi".
An incredible monument of the Renaissance. Botticelli, Perugino, Ghirlandaio worked on the frescoes that adorn the walls of the chapel. A truly legendary fresco "The Last Judgment" by Michelangelo. Usually there are a lot of people in the Sistine Chapel, and it is rather difficult to see all the amazing paintings. Therefore, a virtual tour is a real salvation. Enjoy!
A museum dedicated to the great writer is worth a visit for everyone! Walking around the "bad apartment" No. 50 (according to the plot of "The Master and Margarita", Woland lived in it) is possible virtually. You will have a chance to look into Bulgakov's office, visit the living room, see the "communal kitchen" exposition. The exhibits presented in the museum are digitized, so that they can be examined slowly and in detail.
Tells almost everything about contemporary art. The museum is known not only for its exposition, but also for its unusual building in the form of an inverted tower. Visitors first climb to the top floor, then spiral around the exhibition and descend. Thanks to the online tour, everyone has the opportunity to repeat the route! In addition, the exhibits presented in the virtual collection can be carefully discerned in every detail.
Of course, virtual museums are no substitute for real excursions. But such online outings, and even if with your child, will help you better understand him and plan a family vacation program. Have a pleasant and informative pastime!
Everything is moving, everything is moving forward. With the development of scientific and technological progress in our world, there is a huge number of all kinds of wonderful changes that shake society. Progress has reached art. Today we will talk about virtual museums of the world.
What is a virtual museum?
The name is very interesting, but not very clear. Like this - virtual museum ? Is there anything like that in the world? And for the elderly, it will be quite difficult to understand such an expression. Well, let's try to explain in more detail.It's actually easier to show than to tell. Take for example a world famous museum like. On our website you can read detailed information about this museum, but the official website of the museum, which you can visit at (https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/), will give you a more accurate one. We go to this site and find there such a link as "virtual visit" - sounds tempting, doesn't it?
After we follow the link provided above, we can fully, virtually, enjoy any of the halls of the museum, and even be able to observe the view from the roof of this museum. Of course, many will ask how is it all organized? Is there a big difference? The main thing is that now, being anywhere in the world, we can calmly enjoy the beautiful paintings with the help of the Internet, kindly provided by the developers of the Hermitage website.
Why are virtual museums needed?
The answer is on the surface and suggests itself - to be closer to art! To find this or that picture at any time! To show a particular work of art if there is no way to visit a particular museum.Virtual museums there are many in the world, and if you are a creative person who appreciates art, then a virtual visit will save you both time and money, and you will get nothing less pleasure! Enjoy your virtual walks.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot talking about virtual museums of the world, it would just be silly not to mention the project that the Google search engine itself launched. This is a truly brilliant project (https://artsandculture.google.com/). Be sure to visit this site. Almost any museum in the world can be found there. There is a choice of language. The project is quite young and continues to develop. Google, as we all know, is a very serious company and they took the time to devote it to such important topics as art and culture, for which they are very grateful!