Many museums around the world, such as the Louvre, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, and London’s National Gallery, have touch-friendly programming that allows blind visitors to experience sculptural works with their hands.
But the initiative of Hoy toca el Prado, Madrid’s Museo del Prado is unique, as it targets people with visual disabilities, by applying 3D printing techniques to create a reproduction of flat painted works.
The Prado museum have displayed around half a dozen reproduction of paintings, in which a chemical process involving ultraviolet light and special ink resulted in a few millimeters of added volume, while retaining the originals’ color.
Among the paintings included in the collection are Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa;” “Don’t touch me” (Noli me tangere) by Antonio da Correggio; and “Still life with Artichokes, Flowers and Glass Vessels” by Juan Van Der Hamen.