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Old masters, new perspectives: The Gemäldegalerie in Berlin
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The Gemäldegalerie, Berlin’s renowned painting gallery, guards one of the most important treasures of European art history. The museum houses masterpieces from the 13th to the 18th century — including paintings by Jan van Eyck, Pieter Bruegel, Albrecht Dürer, Botticelli, Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Jan Vermeer and Angelika Kauffmann.
Since 2011, the Gemäldegalerie has been collaborating with Google Arts & Culture and other institutions of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation) to bring cultural heritage to the world and make it accessible online. Building on the long-standing partnership between the Gemäldegalerie and Google Arts & Culture, we are now reaching another milestone: The new "Canvas Legends" hub makes the museum's works accessible in unprecedented quality and scope, offering entirely new perspectives on this outstanding collection.
Zoom into the collection
This is the largest art digitization for a museum that Google Arts & Culture has undertaken to date for more than 1,100 paintings — including masterpieces by Albrecht Dürer, Caravaggio, and Rembrandt. You can also explore the paintings organised by time or color.
A digital magnifying glass: Zoom in to discover hidden details in masterpieces like Hans Holbein's "The Merchant Georg Gisze."
Behind the scenes: Using Art Camera technology, over 1,100 masterpieces from the Gemäldegalerie were digitized in high-resolution gigapixel quality.
Vermeer’s “Young Lady with a Pearl Necklace” (1663/1665)
Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s "The Dutch Proverbs" (1559)
Albrecht Dürer’s "The Madonna with the Siskin" (1506)
Angelica Kauffmann’s
These Gigapixel images act as a digital magnifying glass allowing both experts and art enthusiasts alike to examine the surfaces of the paintings in minute detail. Anyone looking at the fine brushstrokes in Vermeer's ’Young Woman with a Pearl Necklace’ or the cracks in the varnish will discover subtleties that often remain hidden to the naked eye for museum visitors. Zooming into the paintings sharpens the eye for the craftsmanship as well as the virtuosity of the Old Masters.
Storytelling combining art and AI
To offer a playful perspective on the Old Masters and encourage us to look closer at the details in this collection, the Google Arts & Culture Lab has created Mice in the Museum, an interactive experience in collaboration with the Gemäldegalerie. Choose your journey through the museum while listening to fictional characters discuss the owl on Malle Babbe's shoulder or the drama of a Rubens painting. Based on the academic metadata about the painting and image analysis, Google Gemini generates a fun, narrative dialogue between two mice commenting on the action on the canvas.
Mice in the Museum: Listen to an AI-generated audio dialogue where two fictional mice playfully discuss masterpieces like Rembrandt's self-portrait.
Expertly curated stories
Over 50 new online exhibitions offer insights into the motifs and stories behind the works. Discover the hidden gems of the collection, dive into the symbolism of Lucas Cranach's "Fountain of Youth," or find the 120 hidden proverbs in Bruegel's masterpiece. To guide visitors through the extensive collection, this new hub follows the human life cycle — from childhood to death — showing that these works have lost none of their relevance today. "Canvas Legends" is an invitation to rediscover the Old Masters in a new way!
To view the exhibition online, visit goo.gle/canvaslegends or download the Google Arts & Culture app for iOS or Android.
