Exploring the Google Art Project

Manuscripts in the Monastery of St John the Theologian, Patmos, Greece

Today, the Google Art Project announced the addition of its first monastery, that of St John the Theologian on the Greek island of Patmos. The monastery is nearly a millennium old and stands on the purported site of St John’s vision of the apocalypse. While you can’t watch the monks chant Vespers, you can use Museum View (like Street View) to take an up-close, virtual tour of the church and monastery buildings, including several areas that are not normally open to visitors, such as the monks’ choir stalls. You can even climb up to the third floor and imagine ringing the bells. If you go back down to the second floor, you can browse the monastery museum, which includes icons, communion vessels and manuscripts, including what appears to be a collection of chant manuscripts.

Musician Angels and the Harrowing of Hell

You can also search the Google Art Project website by collection, artist, artwork and user gallery. A number of interesting church and music-related artworks come up, including an image of Musician Angels and the Harrowing of Hell from the medieval Flemish manuscript to the left. This illuminated music manuscript currently resides in the collection of The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore and was a gift of the William Hearst Foundation. The Google Art Project provides plenty of information on each artwork. You can even zoom in close to view details.