Google Arting About: an art historian's perspective on Google Art Project

I got talking with some non-art historians one lunchtime this week about Google Art Project and its applications for art historical research. Most of them were quite surprised that I didn't just think it was a silly toy for amateurs. But really, what's not to like about making art history feel like play!?

For most people, visiting a museum (especially when overseas) is a tourist experience; for me, it's usually work, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy it. Research trips are fun but they are still research. So if Google Art is for the most part about giving people the chance to be 'virtual tourists', then I don't see why it doesn't give me the same chance to be a 'virtual researcher'.

Not only is it great to be able to visit museum collections that I've never had the opportunity of visiting in the flesh, like the Hermitage, but also the resolution of the images makes it a really useful art viewer. There's just no way you can get that level of detail (particularly brushwork) in most images on the internet (with a few exceptions like the National Gallery's zoomy viewer). For me, the detail really is the highlight. Art historians are often interested in less obvious details than those that are usually photographed - Google Art means you can zoom on all kinds of weird things, take a screenshot, and throw it into a Powerpoint presentation for your next class or conference paper.

Another thing I was particularly excited about was not just 'visiting' galleries I'd never been to, but seeing old favourites in new ways... that is, in ways not possible when you're standing in the room. I've been doing some work on François Lemoyne recently, so when I first had a play with Google Art I went straight to Versailles to hunt out the Apotheosis of Hercules that he painted on the ceiling of the Hercules Salon. I've spent many hours standing in that room being jostled by hundreds of tourists, straining my neck and nearly falling over backwards to try and see Lemoyne's painting. And forget photographing it, that's always a complete blurry and piecemeal disaster.

But here it is on Google Art, in amazing high resolution that allows you to zoom in on the details in a way that would never be possible in real life... while also being situated in its original setting, so you don't forget how it was supposed to be viewed and experienced. This way I'm able to consider not only its reception, but also its production: I get to experience how the courtiers saw it from the ground, but also to see it with the proximity that Lemoyne did from the scaffolding when he was painting it. (As an aside - the only problem with this at the moment is that only half the ceiling has been photographed... I'm hoping this will be amended in the fullness of time).

With the Versailles example, once again I can see how it's going to become a really useful teaching and presentation tool. I can take a screen shot of the room and the floor plan, showing exactly where in the palace the painting is so I can show students and others who haven't had the chance to see it in situ for themselves. How great will that be for teaching museum studies and curating courses, giving students a virtual experience of the space and the context of its location in the museum all at once? Of course, in this respect, one of the pros is also one of the cons... it may be an art historian's relief to see the Mona Lisa without crowds of tourists, but it's certainly not an authentic experience of the object from a museological perspective.

Google Art is not flawless and it's not free of issues... but for the art historian, it's fun, useful and exciting. And that's enough for me.

The last jube in Paris

No, not the sweet. I'm talking about architectural jubes, what the French call a jubé and what is better known in English as a rood screen. This is the architectural element of a church that physically separates the choir from the nave, and hierarchically separates the clergy from the laity during a service. The word comes from the Latin phrase intoned by the celebrant before preaching: "Jube, Domine, Benedicere..."

I've just returned from a research trip to Paris, where I visited the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont (right next door to the Panthéon in the 5th arrondissement), and witnessed first-hand the last jubé still intact in a Paris church.

It was built around 1530-45 by Antoine Beaucorps. The impression it makes on the space of the church is incredible - this huge mass of stone which seems to lightly twirl itself around a couple of columns. It's known for its stylistic eclecticism, combining organic Renaissance decorative elements on a much more Gothic structure, something which was presumably attracting the numerous architecture students sitting sketching it from the nave while I was there (though I managed to hide them behind a column when taking the photograph).

Jubés were mostly removed from French churches during the Counter Reformation, following those decrees from the Council of Trent that emphasised the importance of making the Mass accessible to the congregation. The jubé wasn't actually condemned by the Council, but its removal was interpreted as a way of quite literally breaking down the barrier that separated the people from the sacred actions of the service. If the jubé of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont is anything to go by, then all I can say is: what a pity!