Stroke of the brush: Italian artworks go online

[October 02, 2010]  ROME (AP) -- Imagine being so close to Botticelli's Venus that you can see the strands of her blond hair, the shades of pink in her cheeks, the cracks in the centuries-old paint.

That sensation is now just a click away.

This week, an Italian company has put high-resolution images online of "The Birth of Venus" and five other masterpieces from the Uffizi gallery in Florence, including works by Caravaggio and Leonardo da Vinci.

By zooming in with the click of a mouse, the smallest details can appear -- even ones that aren't ordinarily visible. The images have a resolution of up to 28 billion pixels -- about 3,000 times stronger than that of an average digital camera.

The images are available to view free until Jan. 29 at the website http://www.haltadefinizione.com/.

[Associated Press]

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