Web Exercises

Skill Goal: Website assessment
Subject: Renaissance (and other) art on the net

Presenting museums and art on the net is an evolving skill. A computer screen is a very different environment than a museum gallery, with both advantages and disadvantages.

Your job in this exercise is to visit several online museums and focus on its offerings in Italian Renaissance art. Describe what each online museum offers, explain how it is limited or any problems faced by you as a user, and propose improvements.

Explain also what a Web-based presentation can offer that an actual gallery cannot. Then try to explain the advantages of a visit to a real museum compared to a Web presentation of the same objects. Finally, if you can, find another Web-based museum and rate it in comparison to the four below.

• WebMuseum
  WebMuseum is a Web-only project that presents images of works situated in many actual museums.
• Museé de Louvre [In English]
  Presents a "virtual visit" to the Louvre, the great art museum of Paris.
• Le Grand Louvre [In English]
  A more traditional Web guide to the Louvre.
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)