Now, view art masterpieces at home by taking Google Earth's virtual tour

London, Jan 14 (ANI): You may now be able to zoom in on some of the world's most famous paintings from the comfort of your home, all thanks to a link between Spain's Prado museum and the internet.

Google Earth has launched a virtual tour of the Prado Museum in Madrid that enables web surfers to examine 14 of its masterpieces in the minutest detail.

Fourteen of the museum's finest works, including Velazquez's Las Meninas, Goya's Third of May and Rubens' The Three Graces have been photographed to such a high resolution that details barely discernible to the naked eye become visible online, reports the Independent.

Google Earth is a free service provided by the Internet search engine company that uses satellite technology to reproduce maps and finely detailed images of places throughout the world.

Google's first collaboration of its kind with an art museum allows viewers anywhere in the world to home in on tiny sections of the chosen works, and skim the canvas in a way that is unimaginable in real life.

Javier Rodriguez Zapatero, Google Spain's director, said that the images are 1,400 times clearer than anything the average tourist's 10-megapixel camera could render.

"It's a unique vision. In the museum we cannot get this close to a painting; if we did we'd need a three-metre-high ladder to get these views," said Clara Ribera, of Google Spain.

The project involved 8,200 photographs taken between May and July last year, which were then combined with Google Earth's zoom-in technology.

"There is no better way of paying tribute to the great masters than to universalise their art, and make it accessible to the greatest number of people," the Prado's director, Miguel Zugaza, said.

"An image is no substitute for the direct experience of the work, but these actual-sized reproductions offer prodigious realism," Zugaza added.

The Prado chose works it considered indispensable for any visitor. They include works by El Greco, Rembrandt, Durer, Raphael, Van de Weyden, Tiepolo and Titian. (ANI)