Last Supper Goes Online

I am pretty excited about this. One of the world’s most famous murals will be posted online so people from all over the world can see it close up without having to travel to Milan, Italy. Prior versions of the painting online have been low resolution or bad photos from books.

Typical Internet versions have looked like this. Tomorrow you will be able to see brush strokes.

From Reuters here:

A high-resolution image of Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” will soon be posted on the Internet by an Italian technology firm, allowing art lovers and conspiracy theorists alike to scrutinize it from their own computers.

The digital imaging firm, called HAL9000 after the killer computer in Stanley Kubrick’s film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” will post the 16-17 giga pixel image on its Web site www.haltadefinizione.com on Saturday.

Located in a former monks’ dining hall adjacent to a church in Milan, the 500-year-old mural by Leonardo Da Vinci depicts Jesus Christ when he predicts that one of his apostles will betray him.

“This will make it easier for people to see it,” he said, referring to the difficulties of arranging a visit to the hall where the mural is located.

So many tourists visiting Milan want to see it that they often have to make reservations at least a month in advance.