Christus Rex is the home of several extraordinarily rich collections of digitized art. Christus Rex itself is "a non-profit organization dedicated to the dissemination of information on works of art preserved in churches, cathedrals and monasteries all over the world." The Web pages were designed and are maintained by Michael Olteanu & Associates, Inc.
That's no small task they've assigned themselves, but they do a fine job of fulfilling their purpose. The real gems of this site, and which comprise the majority of the digitized images, are the Vatican collections. There are four: Vatican City, the Sistine Chapel, the Raphael stanzas and loggias, and the Vatican museums. Each of these collections contain hundreds of images in both thumbnail format, and in full blown JPEG color images that can fill a 21" monitor. Each page contains different sorts of information, but all have historical background on the art and/or architecture unique to that collection.
The Vatican City page has links to historical information, a picture of the state flag, a guide to the city, as well as details on the city's art museums and galleries. The images range from the San Pietro Basilica to the Vatican Gardens. As an example of the organizational structure (which is followed by all of the Christus Rex pages), for the San Pietro Basilica, you are presented with seven thumbnail of various views. You are also told how many detailed images of each view will follow. So for the Basilica's Pieta there are ten additional images beyond the thumbnail. The Vatican City page is more oriented toward architecture than any of the other sites.
The Sistine Chapel page has historical information, and a master plan of the chapel, which helps in locating particular paintings. each section in the plan is assigned an alphanumeric code, which is then used in the grouping of the images. The numeric codes are assigned to the ceiling, which is represented by marvelously detailed images. Be forewarned: these are very large files, and can be slow loading.
The site is growing, and they are accepting color photographs of (I assume, thought they don't clearly state it) churches, cathedrals and monasteries, which they will scan and then post with proper credits. This project is represented by the section called "Splendors of Christendom." Ukrainian icons, courtesy of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Archdiocese of Lviv, Ukraine, and images from Assisi, Italy, presented by the Franciscan Web page at the American University are examples of what is available.
Christus Rex makes no bones about their motivation: they want to assemble a "visual representation of the Bible, for the greater glory of God." But this agenda in no way interferes with the real joy that comes from looking at these digitized classic works of art. For those who are off put by an excess of religious fervor, my advice is to just push past the introductory portion of each page, which offers the opportunity to read the Pope's latest encyclical letter, or check out the latest news from the Holy See or Radio Vaticana. One additional and useful link provides access to the Bible in hypertext and plain vanilla ASCII in several languages. The texts are from various sources, including Project Gutenberg.