Explore the Getty Collections Virtually on Google Arts & Culture

Explore six online exhibits on Google’s arts platform, with more coming soon

Screenshot showing a gem with a bearded face in it

Screenshot from Google Arts & Culture story Director’s Choice: Getty Museum Acquisitions 2019

May 05, 2020

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Since the Getty Center and Getty Villa closed temporarily in response to COVID-19, you’ve been asking us for new ways to explore art virtually.

In response, we’ve created several ways to visit virtually—including presenting a selection of exhibitions from the Getty Museum’s and Getty Research Institute’s collections through Google Arts & Culture.

Here you can take a closer look at the collection, learn the stories behind the objects, and zoom in and explore details. For example, in Director’s Choice: Getty Museum Acquisitions 2019, don’t miss the inscribed signature of ancient gem-carver Dioskourides, which is almost impossible to read with the naked eye.

Or in The Art of Three Faiths: Torah, Bible, Qur’an, you can explore the unique medieval art form of micrography, developed by Jewish scribes. Here marginal notations were written in tiny letters to form elaborate geometric designs and plant and animal shapes.

Look out for more online exhibits on Google soon; follow us @GettyMuseum on Twitter and Facebook to be the first to know when there is more to explore.

The Art of Three Faiths: Torah, Bible, Qur’an

Copies of the Torah, Christian Bible, and Qur’an are among the most beautifully illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, illustrated here by three remarkable examples from the Getty Museum’s collections.

Director’s Choice: Getty Museum Acquisitions 2019

In the space of some 50 years, the Getty Museum has become one of the world’s major collections of European art from antiquity to 1900, and of international photography up to the present day. Selected by museum director Timothy Potts, this inaugural review highlights select works added to the collection in 2019.

Eighteenth-Century Pastel Portraits

Pastels—dry, satiny colors, manufactured in sticks of every hue—enjoyed a surge in popularity during the 18th century, becoming, for a time, the medium of choice for European portraiture. Discover the physical properties that made this medium so appealing to portraitists and their patrons.

The Destruction of Pharaoh’s Host

Executed in 1836, this large-scale watercolor is a prime example of the English artist John Martin’s (1789–1854) highly dramatic narrative compositions that feature minute figures in apocalyptic landscapes.

Heaven, Hell, and Dying Well

This exhibition—which includes not only manuscripts but also printed books, a panel painting, stained glass, and other media—explores medieval images that reflect imagined travels to the netherworld and attempts to map what awaited humankind beyond this earthly existence.

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry

The cultivation, preparation, and consumption of food formed the framework for daily labor and leisure in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Explore illuminated manuscripts with images of the chores that produced sustenance, cooking techniques, popular dishes, grand feasts, and diners of different social classes.

Bauhaus: Building the New Artist

What was it like to be a student at the Bauhaus, the legendary German design school? This online exhibit invites you to explore the school’s history, learn about its theoretical underpinnings, and experience the school firsthand through interactive exercises.

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