Looking for some world-class artwork to enjoy? There are few museums that rival the Louvre in both the scope and size of its collections along with the building itself. If you’ve actually been to Paris and seen the Louvre up close, you know there’s no substitute for being there. You can browse many of their items online in various ways, but if you want some of the feeling of wandering the galleries in the museum, you can take advantage of their Petite Galerie 360 walkthrough.
Benh LIEU SONG (Flickr)
Similar to a Matterport scan, this virtual visit lets you move around the rooms, switch from first-person view (on the ground) to “floor plan” view (looking down from above), and click on various hotspots to move to different points of view.
The tour is a bit odd in that it’s got five parts and each part is a little different in how it was put together. This means potentially different options to move, how to see the overall floorplan, and different arrangement of navigation, help, and other controls. Only one has the option to switch between English or French. I couldn’t find a way to switch language in the others. The different styles of movement mean that some have a top-down map view with points to click to move, while others had round “disks” on the floor to click (again, think Matterport) to move.
The level of information is pretty good in some tours, but less in others. In some tours, there’s a circle with an “i” to indicate additional info, but the color and exact style can vary. Not every item has additional information at all. In some tours, you have simple text descriptions, while others include supplemental images presumably from their museum guide. Of course, you can always try to zoom in closer to see the information cards on the walls, but they are pretty small and in French. A few items also include a magnifying lens icon to indicate a higher quality image is available.
I also found it interesting that there are items blurred out. I’m aware that art can be copyrighted, but the idea of a museum blurring their works seems very strange. It seems like being on display in a museum versus being shown in a gallery would be like the difference between a library and a bookstore (private museums notwithstanding).
Unfortunately, this isn’t a VR experience. Based on one of the popup messages, it looked like VR would be an option, but I can’t see any way I would activate it. Even so, it’s nice to be able to have somewhat of a virtual visit. Assuming you’re not preparing for a trip to France soon, it’s probably the best way to get at least some of the experience!
Virtual tours (main page):
- 1: Founding Myths: From Hercules to Darth Vader (FR)
- 2: The Body in Movement (EN/FR)
- 3: Power Plays (FR)
- 5: The Advent of the Artist (FR)
- 6: From Afar. Travelling Materials and Objects (FR)
