Gemäldegalerie: “Canvas Legends”

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**The “Canvas Legends” theme page on Google Arts & Culture** Photo: Google Arts & Culture

**Hans Holbein the Younger, The Merchant Georg Gisze (Detail), 1532, Oak Wood, 97,5 x 86,2 cm, Gemäldegalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin** Photo: Google

**Caravaggio, Cupid as Victor, detail, 1601/1602, 156 x 113 cm, Gemäldegalerie - Staatliche Museen zu Berlin** Photo: Google

**Jan Vermeer, Young Lady with a Pearl Necklace, detail, 1663/65, 56,1 x 47,4 cm, Gemäldegalerie - Staatliche Museen zu Berlin** Photo: Google

**Albrecht Dürer, Portrait of Hieronymus Holzschuher, detail, 1526, lime wood, 51 x 37 cm, Gemäldegalerie - Staatliche Museen zu Berlin** Photo: Google

**Gigapixel recordings in the Gemäldegalerie** Photo: Google Arts & Culture

**Mice in the Museum, "Canvas Legends" on Google Arts & Culture** Photo: Google Arts & Culture

“Canvas Legends”: The Gemäldegalerie in Minute Detail and with New AI Perspectives

27.02.2026
Gemäldegalerie

With the Canvas Legends project, the Gemäldegalerie (Old Masters Gallery) and Google Arts & Culture are presenting a comprehensive digital reinterpretation of works from the Gemäldegalerie. More than 1,100 masterpieces in its collection – from Botticelli and Dürer to Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Rubens – are now available on the new theme pages and through the Google Arts & Culture app.

The project combines technological innovation with curatorial expertise:

Ultra-high resolution: More than 1,100 works from the Gemäldegalerie Collection have been digitised using Google Art Camera. The images reveal even the smallest details, including brushstrokes and craquelure.
More than 50 new online exhibitions: In newly designed digital tours, Gemäldegalerie curators explain selected masterpieces in detail. A special highlight is Dagmar Hirschfield’s Director’s Choice. These stories are embedded in a narrative framework that arranges the works along the universal phases of human life – from childhood to death.
The AI Experiment Mice in the Museum: An AI-supported audio tool serves as an innovative form of access. Conceived by the Arts & Culture Lab in Paris, two fictional mice engage in entertaining dialogue about individual works of art, playfully opening up new perspectives.

Canvas Legends is the latest milestone in the partnership between the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SPK, Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation) and Google, which has been in place since 2011. The project is an invitation to a global audience to rediscover the relevance and expressiveness of the Old Masters in a digital format. At the same time, it offers researchers an opportunity to use the digital images for specific inquiries.