Art Authority puts centuries’ worth of masterpieces onto your iPad

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Turn your commute to work into a tour of the world's best gallery. Photo: Art Authority

Today marks five years since the iPad first went on sale and, to celebrate, the superb app Art Authority (which also celebrates its fifth anniversary) is slashing its price from $9.99 to zero for one day only.

For those unfamiliar with it, Art Authority is a fantastic resource for any art-lover, with 75,000 high-resolution classic artworks stored in one place. These include paintings and sculptures by more than 1,000 major western artists, with an easy-to-use interface that divides the works up into different periods — so you’ll have no problem sorting your Byzantine paintings from your Baroque, or your Romantics from your Renaissance.

“Steve Jobs said ‘It’s technology, married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing,'” says Alan Oppenheimer, the former Apple engineer behind Art Authority.

Every artwork includes a work title, date, location and various other details, such as a nifty reference guide to its size, which adds an important sense of scale. It also features a great “Art Like This” recommender engine to expand your horizons, and an “Art Near Me” feature, for those who want to seek out some of the original art in person.

Viewing artwork on the gorgeous Retina Display of an iPad is one of those things the device was practically invented for. If you ever wanted the equivalent of the world’s greatest art museum compressed into the tiny form factor of your iOS tablet, I’d highly recommend checking out Art Authority. Particularly at today’s price.

Source: iTunes

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