Everyone’s doing it. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced that more than 400,000 high-resolution digital images of public domain works in the Museum’s enormous collection are now available for on their website for free, non-commercial use. The initiative is called Open Access for Scholarly Content (OASC) and makes the images available for scholarly use in any media.
Architectural gems include Ancient Fragments from Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as well as Renaissance Italian drawings, Beaux-Arts designs from France, and miscellany from across Europe. There are drawings both real and fantastic by Claude Nicolas Ledoux, Andrea Palladio, and Baldassare Franceschini that helped shape the history of architecture, as well as relics of the fallout of this history, including Postmodern furniture that somehow oddly fits in the Met’s collection. Early photographic studies of various architecture by photographers such as Walker Evans and even Walter Gropius document the transitions of Modernism in the early 20th century.
Here are some of our favorites from the vast and intriguing online collection, in roughly chronological order. All images courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Tankstelle [Gas Station], Julian Faulhaber, 2008
“G.Q. Manstyle Award” Cup, Michael Graves, 1982
Splitting, Gordon Matta-Clark, 1974
“Capitello” Chair, Studio 65, Italy, 1971
From “21 Views of International Style Architecture, Possibly New York City,” Walker Evans, 1963
“Pristine Table Architecture”, Wilber L. Orme, 1938
Negro Church in South Carolina, Walker Evans, 1936
Flatiron Building in New York, Walter Gropius, 1928
Mechanical Elements, Fernand Léger, 1920
Design for a Wall Decoration with Peacock, Cranes, and Sunflowers for the Restaurant in Hotel Langham (Paris), Émile Hurtré, 1896-98
The Upper Gallery of the Crystal Palace, Philip Henry Delamotte, 1854
Imaginary Architecture with Camel and Figures, after Della Bella Pierre Moreau, 18th century
Architectural Project based on the Pantheon, Ahlsned, (Scandinavian, active ca. 1847)
Architectural Capriccio with a Monumental Arch, Jean Nicolas Servandoni, 18th century
The Round Tower, from Carceri d’invenzione (Imaginary Prisons), Giovanni Battista Piranesi, ca. 1749-50
Architectural Design for a Façade, Ferenc (Franz) Speth, Hungary or Austria, 1739–69
An Architectural Monstrance, Anonymous, French, 16th century