More than a hundred treasures from Victoria Memorial Hall, among them a painting by Johann Zoffany, will be showcased in a global online archive by Google featuring many well-known museums.

A team from Google was in the city last week, shooting at Victoria Memorial. A panoramic view of the inside as well as the outside area of the museum will also be available on the online platform.

Zoffany’s oil on canvas depicting General Claude Martin, the founder of the La Martiniere Schools, and his friends, will share space with paintings by European artists from 1770-1850-60, also known as Company Paintings, works of Thomas and William Daniell, Abanindranath Tagore, Jamini Roy, historic documents and Tipu Sultan’s handwritten and illustrated diary on the art of war and other treasures from Victoria Memorial on Google Cultural Institute, earlier Google Art.

Started by the tech giant in 2011, the institute is a not-for-profit initiative that partners with cultural organisations to make the world’s cultural heritage available online.

Victoria Memorial signed an MoU with Google Cultural Institute in 2013 and as part of the project 150 highlights of the museum would be found on the online platform. Fifty of these images will be available in ultra high-resolution images known as gigapixels.

“We are still deliberating on which 50 to choose. We are also planning to do a digital walkthrough of the museum,” said Jayanta Sengupta, the secretary and curator of Victoria Memorial Hall and Indian Museum. “The selection has to be balanced. We are choosing objects that are historically as well as visually attractive. The transformation into gigapixels of certain paintings, especially of the impressionist painters, will be extremely useful for art enthusiasts. Each and every brush stroke and intricacies of the paintings will be visible.”

The technology used by Google is expensive and patented. “Footfall at museums has been known to increase after digitisation. People are keen to check out the actual objects,” Sengupta said, adding that the Indian Museum would soon join Victoria for the project.

Courtesy the association with Google, Victoria Memorial can now put up exhibitions it is hosting on Google Cultural Institute. “We can select an exhibition, curate it and post on Google. Also, we can put up previews for our upcoming exhibitions,” Sengupta said. “Google is the most popular search engine. The project is not only beneficial for us but it also gives people a chance to go through our collection.”

Three museums from India – Crafts Museum, National Gallery of Modern Art and National Museum, all in Delhi – are already part of the association. Victoria and Google are aiming for a November launch, when a few more Indian museums will come on board.

The choice of German neoclassical painter Zoffany’s painting of General Claude Martin has made the La Martiniere family proud too. “This is a matter of pride and pleasure for us. We are delighted and it is a great honour for us,” said Supriyo Dhar, the secretary of La Martiniere Schools.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / by Samabrita Sen / Saturday – September 05th, 2015