A detailed view of Las Meninas on Google Earth is seen during a slide show after a Madrid news conference on Tuesday. (Daniel Ochoa de Olza/Associated Press)One of Spain's most prominent art museums is harnessing Google technology to allow art lovers to scrutinize the minute details of some of its masterpieces.

Starting Tuesday, visitors to the website of Madrid's Prado museum can use Google Earth to browse and zoom in on 14 of its most famous paintings, including Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, Diego Velazquez's Las Meninas, and Francisco de Goya's Third of May.

The partnership with Google is the first of its kind involving a museum.

"There is no better way to pay tribute to the great masters of ... art than to universalize knowledge of their works using optimum conditions," Prado director Miguel Zugaza said.

The images on Google Earth have a resolution 14,000 megapixels, far outshining a standard 10 megapixel camera.

The images were put together from 8,200 high-resolution photographs of the paintings. The project took 10 months to complete and was the brainchild of Google employee Clara Rivera.

"Normally, you have to stand a good distance away from these works, but this offers you the chance to see details that you could only see from a big ladder placed right beside them," she said.

To use the technology, users will first have download Google Earth. It is a free program provided by the Internet search engine that uses satellite technology to reproduce maps and finely detailed images of places throughout the world, from houses in Canadian cities to beaches or forests in Africa.

Although enthusiastic in his endorsement of the technology, Zugaza said it doesn't compare to the real thing.

"With the digital image, we're seeing the body of the paintings with almost scientific detail," Zugaza said. "What we don't see is the soul. The soul will always only be seen by contemplating [the] original. "

Google paid for the program in its entirety, said Javier Rodriguez Zapatero, Google Spain director. He would not say how much it cost. He said there were no immediate plans to expand the program to include other paintings at the Prado or other museums.

With files from the Associated Press