Travellers get to grips with the new interactive Station Masters gallery at St Pancras. © National Gallery / Eurostar
The National Gallery in London has teamed up with Eurostar to launch the world’s first interactive digital art gallery for travellers at St Pancras International.
Unveiled on April 22 2008, the Station Masters gallery is a free interactive service located within Eurostar’s departure lounge at the newly developed railway station. It is designed to give travellers unprecedented access to some of the nation’s best-loved works of art.
Travellers simply choose which painting they want to view by taking a sofa-style seat at one of six tailor-made, touch-screen coffee tables.
They can then explore a database of 100 highlights from the National Gallery’s collection of Western European painting, including masterpieces by Leonardo da Vinci, Rubens, Titian, Holbein, Caravaggio, Constable, Van Gogh and Monet.
“Eurostar wanted to give this terminal a clear identity rooted in London’s rich cultural offering,” said National Gallery Director, Dr Nicholas Penny. “What better way to do this than to enable travellers to immerse themselves in some of the greatest paintings in Western European art from the National Gallery’s collection?”
Jan van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434. © The National Gallery, London
After searching the database, the picture selected by the people using the touch screens is displayed on one of six free-standing plasma screens situated within the brick archways that run along the eastern wall of the departure lounge, thus creating a constantly evolving art gallery for fellow travellers.
Station Masters is designed to inspire travellers of all ages and includes several interactive tools to explore the paintings. Users can zoom in on a chosen picture to discover hidden details and artistic secrets that are often impossible to see in a conventional gallery setting.
In the case of 'The Arnolfini Portrait' by Jan van Eyck (1434), zooming in on the tiny circular mirror on the far wall reveals a remarkable reflected scene being played out behind the artist’s viewpoint.
The featured collection of paintings includes celebrated National Gallery masterpieces such as ‘The Rokeby Venus’ by Velázquez and 'Whistlejacket' by George Stubbs, and is arranged into eight enduring themes: Love, Identity, Light, Celebration, Discovery, Passion, Peace and Time.
William Hogarth, Marriage A-la-Mode: 2. The Tête à Tête. About 1743. © The National Gallery, London
A descriptive text - available in English, French and Flemish – accompanies each painting and links it to one of the central themes.
People can also use Station Masters to send an e-card of a favourite painting to friends or relatives with a short message before departure.
