If you’re obsessively fascinated with Old Masters paintings as I am, and being a painter, you might find yourself wishing for a neck like a giraffe to peer closer at the paintings on the museum walls with out raising the ire of the security who will bark at you for standing too close.

Well you need not strain your neck or the patience of the museum staff any more, at least Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain.

The musuem partnered with Google to photograph some of the most famous works in their collection, such as The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch. The images of the paintings contain as many as 14,000 million pixels (14 gigapixels). With this high level resolution you are able to see fine details such as the tiny bee on a flower in The Three Graces by Rubens. 14 of the museum’s masterpieces were incorporate into Google Earth as well as the Google Maps web application. The Google Earth Prado layer also includes 3D models which allow you to fly around the Prado buildings to experience the museum as if you were actually there.

To view the layer, select 3D buildings from the left panel and type ‘Prado’ in the ‘Fly to’ search box.  You will then be transported to the Prado Museum in 3D where you can click on an icon to view the Masterpieces.

See in Google Earth
Enter in Google Earth, select the 3D buildings layer form the left panel, type “Museo del Prado” in the “Fly to” search box and you will see the masterpieces.

Download Google Earth

See in Google Maps
On the occasion of the launching of this project, for the two next following weeks you will be able to see each day one of the works in gigapixel format in Google Maps.