# Stay Safe. 3D Virtual Tour of the National Gallery of Art (Washington)

Laura Lai at The British Museum (2019)

Photo by Laura Lai

by Laura Lai/ Review

The time to visit museums and art galleries are definitely put on hold because of this pandemic lockdown. And although pandemic outbreaks are not new to humankind, it should be the first time when such a global outbreak happens during the Internet era, in the times of computers and of the mobile devices. It means that if we cannot visit a museum or an art gallery, they can actually pay us a 3D visit. You do not open the door as to a classical guest, but you switch on your computer. And we both sit at the table. I may also happen to enjoy a coffee… .

The 3D virtual tour at the National Gallery of Art (in Washington) brings the outdoors at our doorstep and even at your table on your computer. The exposition ‘True to Nature’ offers a virtual feeling of being in nature. It reunites 100 oil paintings from the late 18^th century of different British, Danish, Dutch, French and Swiss painters.

            The first section is also for lovers of the Antiquity period of world history – like me. These painters of the 18^th century arranged themselves to go to Italy and paint the countryside, the ruins, to tombs, the Roman theater, the waterfalls – most probably without missing anything. For example, there is ‘Vesuvius Eruption’ (1779), ‘Vesuvius seen from the ruins of Pompeii’ (1827), or ‘The View of Naples with Vesuvius’, etc. [Just as a short parenthesis: Pompeii is a city near Vesuvius mostly frequented by rich Romans; it was founded in the 6^th century BC and covered with ashes, when the Vesuvius erupted in 79. In the 18^th century started the rediscovery of the old city with its temples, buildings, and even wall paintings. The 3D reconstruction of the buildings of Pompeii is also very fascinating to me.]

For all the painters this was a quest for naturalism. For me, it is a way to feed my fascination for Antiquity. It is fascinating to watch the gradual change caught on canvas. It reminds me of the fact that we all may look at the same thing and tell different things about it. It is also valid for persons: several people watching the same person and seeing different things about her/him, having different impressions about her/him that may be completely different. Sadly, opinions have no value unless they are pained in oil; it is then when the view becomes priceless. J

The second part of the exposition still reminds the visitor about the Antiquity – just another aspect of it. It is about the rocks and the caves presented in its great variety of shapes and colors, and about beautiful trees of different sizes, shapes, colors – as painting trees, besides being divinely beautifully especially in spring, they are also a great challenge for the painter.

The third part of the exposition presents something equally difficult to be caught on canvas: the colors of the sky in general, and at sunrise and sunset. Indeed, the sky itself exhibits sometimes so unique colors that are impossible to be obtained through a mixture of oil colors. But in the technology times a good camera can be of a great help to remember a beautiful sky color and to keep on trying to reach those natural colors.

The 3D virtual tours are a great opportunity during this pandemic lockdown. Internet helps the visitor to travel all over the world. But they are only a substitute – a great one, but a substitute – of a classical visit to a museum or art gallery. Let us take the example of The British Museum.

            I am equally fascinated by the Antiquity, meaning that I do not treasure one old civilization more than the other. However, there is a first among equals. To me, it is the Egyptian Antiquity. I have not got to Egypt, but I have been to the British Museum. There is a large section about ancient Egypt. I remember when I saw the Rosetta Stone in the Egyptian Gallery that is approx. from the year 200 BC and found in Egypt by French soldiers (1799). The virtual tour can teach lots of things, is great when one cannot afford long travels in order to visit a museum or art gallery, and a great solution for lockdown periods, but it cannot give the visitor the same emotion that the classical visit does.