
Nothing quite stirs the emotions like walking into a gallery to see an original masterpiece.

Seeing that same piece on a digital screen may not have the same effect until now, but one Spanish group claims iPad art-viewing could give a greater insight than you might think.

Madrid’s famous gallery, Museo del Prado, has released an iOS app that allows you to peel away layers of famous paintings to uncover the intimate, and often frightening, secrets lurking beneath.

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Madrid’s famous gallery, Museo del Prado, has released an iOS app that allows you to peel away layers of famous paintings to uncover the intimate, and often eerie, secrets beneath In Judith at the Banquet of Holofernes - the lady in the picture had previously been thought to have been Artemisia, Queen of Pergamon, about to drink the ashes of her dead husband

The app ‘Second Canvas Museo del Prado’ brings together ancient paintings with modern technology to explore 14 of the famous gallery’s most celebrated masterpieces.

It aims to do away with the velvet rope holding people back in galleries allowing anyone peer into the depths of a canvas and see details that would otherwise go unnoticed.

An X-ray function reveals the layers of paint and the construction of the canvases, while infrared vision exposes the artists’ sketches beneath, which can often be drastically different to the final painting.

An infrared view shows there was originally another figure in Judith at the Banquet of Holofernes waiting to with a sack to put the enemy general's head into

The X-ray vision function reveals Velázquez originally painted María Agustina de Sarmiento, handmaiden of the Infanta Margarita in Las Meninas with a much larger nose

Las Meninas or The Family of Philip IV by Diego Velázquez original is shown on the left with an X-Ray version revealing a ghostly figure shown by the app on the right. The app aims to do away with the rope holding people back in galleries enabling anyone peer into the depths of a canvas and see details that would otherwise go unnoticed The Descent from the Cross is a panel painting by the Flemish artist Rogier van der Weyden created around 1435. This image shows how the painting appears to viewers in the gallery, but a closer look reveals a hidden story

Madrid’s famous gallery, Museo del Prado, has released an iOS app that allows you to peel away layers of famous paintings to uncover the intimate, and often eerie, secrets beneath. Pictured is the Descent from the Cross piece - as shown in the app - painted for the chapel of the crossbowmen’s guild in Leuven, Belgium. Looking at the painting through the infrared function shows a splash of blood across his throat that van der Weyden later removed



THE APPS' 15 MASTERPIECES - The Third of May, 1808 in Madrid - Francisco de Goya - Jacob’s Dream - José de Ribera - Las Meninas or The Family of Philip IV - Diego Velázquez - The Nobleman with his Hand on his Chest - El Greco - Crucifixion - Juan de Flandes - The Annunciation - Fra Angelico - The Cardinal - Raphael - Equestrian Portrait of Charles V at Mühlberg - Titian - Immaculate Conception - Giovanni Battista Tiepolo - Descent from the Cross - Roger van der Weyden - The Garden of Earthly Delights - Hieronymus Bosch - The Three Graces - Peter Paul Rubens - Self-portrait - Albrecht Dürer - Judith at the Banquet of Holofernes - Rembrandt Advertisement

For instance, zooming into the face of Saint John the Evangelist from Rogier van der Weyden’s 'Descent from the Cross' reveals tears rolling down his cheeks.

Looking at the painting through the infrared function shows a splash of blood across his throat that van der Weyden later removed.

The X-ray vision function also reveals Velázquez originally painted María Agustina de Sarmiento, handmaiden of the Infanta Margarita in Las Meninas, had a much larger nose.

In 'Descent from the Cross', painted for the chapel of the crossbowmen’s guild in Leuven, Belgium, zooming in to the highest level reveals tiny crossbows in the very top left and right corners.

People have often thought that the shape of Christ’s body in the painting is positioned like a crossbow too, revealing intriguing hidden symbolism.

The incredible skill of this painting is also evident when you zoom in, the tears on the Virgin Mary’s face look like water on the canvas.

Meanwhile, 'Judith at the Banquet of Holofernes' had at one time been thought to picture Artemisia, Queen of Pergamon, about to drink the ashes of her dead husband.

However, the infrared view reveals that there was originally another figure in the painting, waiting with a sack to for the enemy general’s head, identifying the main figure as Judith.

The museum created giga-pixel images of the paintings five years ago including the Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch and Self-Portrait by Dürer.

To do this they combined thousands of high-resolution images to create one giant image of 1,000,000,000 or more pixels. This means the user can see the image in unprecedented detail.

The app lets users zoom in and out to read the explanations of the key symbolic details of each painting.

As well as exploring the works of art, users can interact with them, choosing their favourite detail to share with friends online.

Gabriele Finaldi, deputy director of the museum, believes it provides a new level of understanding of the artwork, but that the app is not intended to replace looking at the original.

‘What we're presenting with this app is the opportunity to get right up close, taking you by the hand to show you details you might never notice,’ he said.

‘Visitors in the gallery can spend a minute, even just half a minute, looking at a picture. With the app you can explore every centimetre of the work of art in your own time on your iPad, leading to a deeper understanding of how it was created and every detail the artist included.’

Madpixel, the developers behind the app, hope to work with further galleries and museums to roll the technology out globally.



In the Descent from the Cross piece, painted for the chapel of the crossbowmen's guild in Leuven, Belgium, zooming in to the highest level reveals tiny crossbows in the very top left and right corners. People have often thought that the shape of Christ¿s body in the painting is positioned like a crossbow too, revealing intriguing hidden symbolism

In the Descent from the Cross piece, the incredible skill of the painter is also evident when you zoom in, the tears on the Virgin Mary’s face look like water on the canvas

The app lets users zoom in and out to read the explanations of the key symbolic details of each painting .As well as exploring the works of art users can interact with them, choosing their favourite detail to share with friends online

Pictured is the Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch with a close up view on the right. Gabriele Finaldi, deputy director of the museum, believes it provides a new level of understanding of the artwork, but that the app is not intended to replace looking at the original.