BERLIN.- The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz) and Google Arts & Culture are deepening their long- standing collaboration with a comprehensive new presentation of works from the Gemäldegalerie. Starting today, over 1,100 masterpieces from the collection are available in extremely high- resolution gigapixel quality on the new theme page (goo.gle/canvaslegends) and in the free Google Arts & Culture app. In addition, the project offers "Mice in the Museum," a new AI-powered experiment to experience the Old Masters.

The aim of the project is to use state-of-the-art technology to give audiences a new way of experiencing the world-famous collection of the Gemäldegalerie. The combination of extremely high-resolution images and modern storytelling creates a contemporary gateway to the paintings of the Old Masters. The online presentation is intended as a digital extension of the museum visit and an invitation to rediscover the surprising relevance and expressiveness of art from the 13th to the 18th century.

Marion Ackermann, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz): "For us, digitization is not a technological end in itself, but a democratic tool. It allows us to open our doors virtually to a wide range of audiences: experts, art enthusiasts, younger generations, but also people who are not mobile or unable to travel – ultimately, anyone with internet access. Our collaboration with Google Arts & Culture shows how technology can help redefine cultural participation."

Dagmar Hirschfelder, Director of the Gemäldegalerie: "For the Gemäldegalerie, ‘Canvas Legends‘ opens up entirely new ways to engage audiences. The extremely high resolution of the Art Camera makes it possible to reveal painting techniques and details that are barely perceptible in regular exhibition settings. This is also of interest to researchers. In addition, the narrative structure of the online presentation deliberately breaks with the chronological display in the gallery. We focus on the everyday references ft he subjects depicted, showing how close the historical figures are to us in their emotions and experiences.“

Amit Sood, Founder and Sr. Director of Google Arts & Culture: "The Gemäldegalerie has been a partner since the beginning of Google Arts & Culture. It is incredibly inspiring to see how they continue to embrace innovation to tell their stories. 'Canvas Legends' marks our largest art digitization for a museum at the highest quality to date. It is a powerful example of how combining ultra-high resolution, curatorial storytelling, and Artificial Intelligence can help institutions unlock their collections for a global audience in a way that is both educational and deeply engaging."

Highlights and features of the new theme page Masterpieces in detail: from Dürer to Caravaggio

At the heart of the digital presentation is the ultra-high-resolution digitization of the collection. More than 1,100 paintings have been captured using the Google Art Camera. This enables a virtual journey of discovery into the smallest details that often remain hidden to the naked eye: be it the meticulously painted hair in Dürer's portrait of Hieronymus Holzschuher, the broad brushstrokes in Rembrandt's Moses, the tiny insects in Jan Brueghel's flower still life, or the notes on Caravaggio's Cupid as Victor. The digitization includes European paintings from the 13th to 18th centuries, featuring numerous masterpieces by Botticelli, Raphael, Titian, Dürer, Holbein, Vermeer, and Rubens, among others. In addition to making the works accessible to a wide audience, the high- resolution images also serve as a research tool, for example in answering questions about attribution, painting technique, or motifs. Curatorial insights and the cycle of life

More than 50 online exhibitions form the backbone of the presentation. In these digital tours, the curators of the Gemäldegalerie devote themselves exclusively to a single masterpiece and use the extreme resolution to convey art historical knowledge in detail. The offering is complemented by a personal selection of works by Director Dagmar Hirschfelder. These individual observations are embedded in a narrative framework that traces the human life cycle: the curated stories guide viewers through the different stages of existence – from the joys and sorrows of childhood to the diverse facets and themes of adulthood to reflection, maturity, but also hardship in old age. This thematic arrangement opens up new perspectives and reveals parallels between pre-modern people and today's viewers.

AI experiment "Mice in the Museum"

With the AI experiment "Mice in the Museum," the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin are breaking new ground in an innovative way. In this AI audio tool, designed by the Google Arts & Culture Lab team in Paris, two fictional characters – the mice August and Pearl – explore the collection from a playful perspective. Technologically, the experiment is based on Google's multimodal Gemini model: the system analyzes the image content and metadata of the artworks to generate a script, which is then converted into spoken dialogue by an AI audio model. A new script is created each time the tool is used. This approach offers a humorous and highly approachable way of engaging with art history.

The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and Google Arts & Culture

The Gemäldegalerie's comprehensive presence on Google Arts & Culture is the result of a long-standing collaboration. Back in 2011, when the platform was launched under the name Google Art Project, the Gemäldegalerie and the Alte Nationalgalerie were among the first 17 participating museums from nine countries worldwide. This was followed by other institutions of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and participation in cross-institutional and international showcases:

● 2016: "Unseen Masterpieces" focusing on Pieter Brueghel the Elder, in collaboration with seven other museums.

● 2017: Virtual tour and three thematic online exhibitions for the show "Renaissance and Reformation: German Art in the Age of Dürer and Cranach," which presented masterpieces from the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, and the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen München at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

● 2017: "We Wear Culture" – a global launch focusing on fashion, involving more than 180 cultural institutions with approximately 400 online exhibitions. The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin were represented with eight exhibitions from the Kunstgewerbemuseum and one exhibition each from the Kunstbibliothek and the Museum Europäischer Kulturen. In this context, the digital presence for the respective museums was also activated, including a Street View tour of the Kunstgewerbemuseum.

● 2018: Expansion of the presence on Google Arts & Culture with exhibitions and objects from the Kupferstichkabinett and the Museum Europäischer Kulturen.

● 2018: Launch of the theme page on Berlin's Museum Island (g.co museumislandberlin). The buildings and collections of the UNESCO World Heritage Site were made comprehensively accessible with virtual tours, gigapixel images, and 3D models (including the Pergamon Altar and Babylon).

● 2018: "Meet Vermeer" – Launch of the online platform for all surviving works by Vermeer, involving 18 cultural institutions from 7 different countries, with 3 online exhibitions from the Gemäldegalerie.

● 2026: "Canvas Legends" – Comprehensive digitization of works from the Gemäldegalerie in ultra-high-resolution gigapixel quality and introduction of AI storytelling with the "Mice in the Museum" experiment.