SC El Prado Masterpieces for Android

Not usable at the museum.

I purchased this app on my Mobile a year or so ago. I have spent many hours in museums all of my life, love painting, and have closely studied the techniques of artists from many periods, and I have visited the Prado twice. This is something entirely different than what you can see in a museum. The images are astonishingly clear and beautiful. If you don't see that, remember that you have to wait for the images to load, especially when you zoom in on a tiny area to see the texture of a single brushstroke and the way its pigment dispersed across the surface of the support or other layers of paint. What you see at first is nothing like what happens as sections of the image come into full focus one patch at a time. The detail develops in front of you as you watch. I have particular favorites: the Bosch triptych was my reason for purchase; and having visited the museum I thought I knew the painting well. The truth is that I saw it for the first time with this app. I really had had no idea of who Bosch was as an artist : and northern renaissance painting is my main interest in art. There is a Bosch painting just 30 minutes from my home and another a few hours away. You just can't see this in the museum: the lighting is much too dim to really see the color and detail as it would be in full daylight, and you can't get nearly close enough to see into the layers of paint. In the app the lighting is wonderfully strong and every pigment radiates its true texture and brilliance. If you know pigments well enough you will often be able to tell exactly what pigments were used and understand how the paint was applied to create each subtle effect. In viewing Bosch I could see the colors, and the improvisation of his brushstrokes, and the living exuberance of his visual energy was nothing like what I had expected. I think many of the Bosch experts may have to completely change their minds about Bosch after really exploring the paintings this way. Once you see the physicality of the work this clearly his emotional intentions are no longer ambiguous. He adores the world and the illusions he created, both delightful or frightening. He is a master dramatist, not a moralist. Unexpected treasures: the early Durer portrait equally changed my mind about this man: the almost erotic playfulness of his background landscape and the way the liquid paint moved and slid into each other strokes was nothing like what I expected - perhaps more mysterious and improvisational even than the landscape in the Mona Lisa (the Louvre offered a gigapixel version last year- I'm not sure if it's still available, but I downloaded it at the time.) Again it was a completely different experience of the painting and the artist than I expected. The same was true for Fra Angelico. Again, I had completely under estimated his work. The colors and illusions are simply exquisite. Frosty, as fresh as morning sunlight, jewel like colors. When looking at the way Raphael's brushstrokes created the lips on the portrait of a cardinal I realized I was learning more about painting than in 50 previous years of study and practice. My hope is that options will be offered to add many more paintings and that every museum in the world will offer something like this.

The quality of the reproductions is disappointing. If you don't think so, look at the Leonardo (which you have to pay an extra dollar for) and then look at the Rembrandt self portrait.

The image quality is amazing. The IR and x-ray versions are fascinating. I have not yet put them on the big screen but will soon. Tons of information about each piece, the artist, the history and the collection related to each piece. Plenty to intrigue before you hit the in-app purchase level - well worth the price even if you never made a purchase. App clearly seems to be set up for future additional in-app offerings, which will be a welcome update down the road. I keep pulling it up on my phone to share with friends - always sparks conversation. Love it!

And some things I hadn't picked up when I visited. A great way to show and tell when you recommend a stop to one of the great European fine art collections.