# Mapping Resources > Reference Material >  googleartproject.com ... I see this as absolutely awesome.

## guyanonymous

http://www.googleartproject.com/muse...he-ambassadors

A hidden trove of resources?  Zoom in on the globe in the link above....keep zooming.  It's about time a way to study the world's art treasures became available to the masses.

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## Gidde

Omg, that is indeed absolutely awesome. Thanks for posting!!! Now they need to get more museums on board. The Toledo Art Museum has a painting I simply adore, that I have no idea what it's called or who it's by ... and it's 2 hours away, so I can't just jaunt down there to find out.  :Frown:

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## Ascension

That's some impressive scanning.  Cool.

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## guyanonymous

I'm hoping to see their map collections and other documents all get scanned to a similar resolution.  Media and information of artistic, scientific, religious, and historic significance, at a level of detail that is useful to scholars, artists, etc, belongs to the world.

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## ravells

Wow!!!! Amazing!!! I can't wait until they put more up! One of the biggest problems with old maps on the web is the lack of resolution

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## Naeddyr

What in the blazes is that cartoon skull on the floor??

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## Redrobes

I'm not much of an art aficionado but I know that if you stand at a certain position in the gallery and view the skull - presumably to the left and under the painting - then it all snaps into perspective and produces the skull in proper shape. Its like the ads for Vodafone etc at cricket grounds where they know the TV cameras are at the bottom of the pitch so they paint them on the grass with an affine perspective transformation so they look square to the camera despite the grass being so oblique to it.

Cool site too. Just google maps with big art scans but I like it. Question is are the scans in the public domain now ?

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## Ascension

I see what you're saying about the angle of viewing for the skull but this leaves me with a new question - why?  You lose the perspective on the rest of the stuff.  I mean it's a neat thing n all but why would an artist do that?  I dunno.  Maybe he's a very early surrealist.  Something worth researching at least.

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## ravells

There seem to be a lot of theories, but mine is that Holbein just thought it would be cool. Remember when there was a lens flare in every television advert and every photoshop drawing?

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## euio

Yeah - I mean, think of the skill you need to come up with and then paint that.  It's a pretty neat way of saying "look at what a great painter I am".

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## Ascension

Oh no!  So he was a trendwhore (not my term just the commonly used term for those who follow fads like the lens flare, tentacles, brushed steel, swirlies and flowers, grunge caps, etc).  Indeed, the skill is impressive, though.

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