the Rijksmuseum collection
This link leads to a webpage with the title "Explore1000 major exhibits", that is part of the website of the Rijksmuseum Collection. Very soon after landing on the webpage, I found out that there is a lot of information and a lot of links to explore as well as a variety of templates and structures in which this information is presented. The main site has a central part of links, accompanied by pictures, an attractive banner and a set of boxes on the right, dedicated to the products and current exhibitions of the museum.The consistency between the webpages of the same site is "preserved" by a left vertical bar, the menu of each webpage. This bar remains in every webpage, yet it changes colors; "search" and "research" have a light blue bar -instead of khaki - and that gives me the impression that I am behind the curtains of the museum, backstage, together with the re-searchers. A set of three thin vertical stripes from paintings, is also a feature that keeps the consistency but it is forgotten in some of the webpages.
From the central part of links of the site, I click on the Masterpieces. Then I click on Johannes Vermeer, and tadan.... a room of the museum, ready for me to explore! But no, I'm not impressed. First, you can not zoom in close to the paintings, as you could do in real life, you can see them all from a distance and from an angle, like if you were in the middle of the museum (i have to admit that from this position you can see pretty well the rug though). Second, the room itself, is of little interest, when you are not there, to make your own path and explore in your own way; the space, the paintings and their relationship with the space and their other paintings.
europeana
At a first glance, it doesn't look like a cultural heritage site ; a big "e" in bright colors on the left, an interactive banner in the center and some tabs that hopefully will be more informative about europeana. Clicking in the first "My europeana", you see two options: login or register. No explanation or reasons to do so are provided. Clicking in the second tab "About us", I finally found out that europeana is a digital library. Clicking on the third tab, "communities" and then on art nouveau community, some flickr and facebook groups appear! It is obvious that it is a brand new site under development, without much content. And I still didn't get the concept of it. Then I decide to go back to the banner, where I click on Art Nouveau, hoping to see some paintings, or even better, a documentary, or some other interactive material. And the result is rewarding! the huge "e" shrinks and moves to the upper left corner, and there is a nice organized in categories exhibition of art nouveau and a link that leads to europeana library.
Louvre
In order to be able to compare and make connections between the information available in all three sites, I clicked directly on "Collection". The site features on the top a number of tabs and on the left, a vertical bar with the target groups according to the age or profession: teachers, professionals, families, under 30's etc. The collection is organized in Curatorial Departments. I click on Prints and Drawings: lots of text in small font, some not so impressive pictures. And then I feel lost, until I notice the left bar, where it is written in even smaller font that I am in the introduction. So I move on to the next section, called "selected works".I am also not impressed. Very very small pictures of the artworks, accompanied by a huge text in small usual font and white background. Nothing artistic or cultural about it. I guess if I was a historian of art, I would be really interested in details and the history around it, but as a average user, I am interested in the experience of the museum; in the narration of the story behind the text, in the beauty of the painting itself and in the "museum" experience.
My questions about art can not be answered from any of those sites, but maybe from the combination of them.
How has the color pallette of the paintings been influenced by eras, geographical locations, painters and art movements?
How has the subject of the paintings been influenced by beliefs, religion, geographical locations,eras?
Symbols; pigeons, olives, flowers, forests, fountains. What do they mean? In which paintings are found? How they became symbols?
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