The museums and heritage institutions of the city of Antwerp
November 25, 2024 8:15 PM Subscribe
The Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp has put a collection of 14,000 woodblock prints online as Public Domain / CC 0 high resolution TIFF images with tags and search capabilities. Faves: a lumpy fish, a happy fetus, the earth is spherical, a view of the sky, a priestly (?Vulcan) blessing. Aside from woodblocks, there is a large collection of other images and objects from their collection here, although most of these seem not to be tagged.
The website is available in Dutch and English (toggle top right). Five over-arching categories are in a drop-down upper left. Search is actually a drop-down menu of tags, though you can navigate by clicking tags on any image as well. Unfortunately, some of the descriptions are not very full, and most are in Dutch, even on the English page - I just kept a google translate tab open.
The website is available in Dutch and English (toggle top right). Five over-arching categories are in a drop-down upper left. Search is actually a drop-down menu of tags, though you can navigate by clicking tags on any image as well. Unfortunately, some of the descriptions are not very full, and most are in Dutch, even on the English page - I just kept a google translate tab open.
Marvellous. I do wish there was a better search facility, but then leafing through you do find more nice things.
posted by Phanx at 12:40 AM on November 26
posted by Phanx at 12:40 AM on November 26
Mod note: [This is great, Rumple; our collages and cards and invitations and mix tape covers and weird artworks salute you! We've added it to the sidebar and Best Of blog!]
posted by taz (staff) at 1:22 AM on November 26 [2 favorites]
posted by taz (staff) at 1:22 AM on November 26 [2 favorites]
The Plantin-Moretus Museum itself is a lovely museum if you ever happen to be somewhere near Antwerp. It's in the former house of the Plantin-Moretus family, so there's a mix of old house, printed matter and printing machinery. Some of the books, including old atlases, are available as facsimile versions, so you can leaf through them.
posted by scorbet at 12:06 PM on November 26 [1 favorite]
posted by scorbet at 12:06 PM on November 26 [1 favorite]
The Plantin-Moretus also has their own collection here including paintings, prints and a lot of stamps and type, for example this designed by Claude Garamont. (Again a lot is not fully available in English)
posted by scorbet at 12:18 PM on November 26 [2 favorites]
posted by scorbet at 12:18 PM on November 26 [2 favorites]
I love lumpy fish! (a lumpsucker, aka sea-hen)
posted by scruss at 8:13 AM on November 27 [1 favorite]
posted by scruss at 8:13 AM on November 27 [1 favorite]
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Priestly blessing, as repurposed by Leonard Nimoy.
posted by zamboni at 8:35 PM on November 25 [2 favorites]