Pictures from an Exhibition (Virtual).

The National Gallery Complete Illustrated Catalogue on CD-ROM, second edition. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997. $95.00.

In discussing The National Gallery Complete Illustrated Catalogue on CD-ROM, I can promise the almost total absence of technical mumbo jumbo. I can make that promise firmly and unequivocally not because I am particularly virtuous about keeping promises, but because I lack knowledge of technical mumbo jumbo.

Installation of this CD-ROM is straightforward. It is designed for both Windows and Macintosh formats -- and the directions for navigating within it are fairly simple. After a few minutes, you will attend to the art works themselves and not worry about the technical side of things. In case there are problems, troubleshooting information is provided.

To avoid misunderstanding, the National Gallery referred to is the one in London, not the one in Washington, DC. For those not familiar with the National Gallery, it has one of the most extensive collections of paintings from the Medieval to the Modern era. The print portion of the CD-ROM gives a brief history of National Gallery and an introduction to the collection. It also offers short accounts of the works and the artists, and a modest bibliography for those who wish to read further. There is nothing here to rival what can be gotten from books. What the CD-ROM offers is an unparalleled opportunity to view a major collection of art works in a way that is much closer to actually being in the museum than is afforded by books.

The artists are listed in alphabetic order and their works accessed with a click of the mouse. If you like a particular work, you can bookmark it so that you can go back it directly when you next run the program. There is a Find button that enables you to discover artists, works, or themes. However, only one word can be keyed in, and refining the search takes time and can be hit-or-miss. I would recommend starting with the list of artists, which enables you to have a short introduction to them, as well as thumbnails or small versions of their works all on the same page or screen. You can then click on any of the paintings and begin to enjoy what makes this CD-ROM so much better than a book.

The best feature of the CD-ROM is its ability to allow the viewer to manipulate the art works in imaginative and useful ways. You can view the whole work, concentrate on details, or scroll the work as if you were following it with your eyes. You can also keep on the screen simultaneously up to ten works or details from them, so that you can make comparisons. On the whole, it is very much like being in a museum because you can interact with the paintings, moving closer to see a detail, for example. In some respects, it is even better than being in the museum because you can compare paintings and their details in ways that would not be possible in museums. What would the guard say if you attempted to carry paintings from one gallery to another in order to compare them side by side?

It is this ability to control how the works are viewed, in their details and in their comparison with other works, which makes this a wonderful way to learn about great paintings. It is of course pricey, but not as much a plane ticket to London and only slightly more than a good picture book that would most likely not be as complete and certainly not afford the ability to manipulate images, see juxtaposed details, and make comparison between works of the same artist, or themes painted by various artists. Give this round to the computer.