Art/Architecture:
Art Image and Research Databases
The study of art frequently involves specialized kinds of research, including locating images for study, searching catalogs of research and art libraries for specialized materials, and archival research. The links collected below are intended to provide a starting point for these kinds of inquiries.
Image Databases
These
are primarily collections of images on multiple
subjects which can be searched. For smaller sets
of images focused on a particular topic, try the
Art History
page. For article databases, click here.
- Ambrosiana
Collection--University of Notre Dame. Inventory-catalog
of drawings from the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in
Milan. Growing database of works by Northern
Italian artists, 1400-1600.
- Art
Images Collection (AU community only) Databases
of images for art history classes at AU.
- ArtServe.
150,000 images maintained by the Australian
National University.
- ARTstor (AU community only) A repository of more than 300,000 art images.
- American
Memory--Library of Congress. Image databases
include 20th century architecture and design,
19th century daguerreotype portraits and views,
film, and WPA posters.
- Fine
Arts Museums of San Francisco Imagebase. Contains 75,000 images from two museum collections.
- Los
Angeles County Museum of Art Collections Online.
Western prints and drawings, and nonwestern
art.
- New York Public Library Digital Gallery. 360,000 digital images of prints, illustrations, photographs, maps, postcards, menus, posters, and other materials. Downloads are free.
- Perseus.
Images of works of ancient Greek and Roman
art.
- Slide
and Photograph Information Retrieval Online
(SPIRO). Slide images from UC Berkeley's
Architecture Slide Library
- Arts
and Humanities Data Service. Searches British
Collections for images.
Library
Catalogs
Other
Useful Databases
ADAM:
The Art, Design, Architecture, & Media Information
Gateway. Catalog of more than 2,000 Internet
resources, primarily British (1/4 of the sites
are US-based or of US interest).
Archives
of American Art. Main repository for papers
of American artists, critics, dealers, curators,
museums, and other organizations.
AskArt.com.
This database contains information about artists
from the 16th century to the present day. Biographies,
auction records, bibliographies, a dealer and
museum directory, feature categories, exhibition
information, and essays are available.
Bibliography
of the History of Art (AU community only)
The
Clearinghouse of Image Databases and the IMAGELIB
listserv archives. From the University of
Arizona, this search engine helps locate sources
of images on the Internet.
The Getty Research Institute. Besides an online catalog, the Getty provides other databases useful for researching it's collections. The Photo Study Collection database provides records of photographic images of works of art. The Provenance Index Databases help researchers discover the history of ownership of works of art drawing from auction catalogs and museum records. The Vocabulary databases help sort through variations in artists names and terms employed in art and architecture.
Grove
Dictionary of Art Online (AU community only).
An online, searchable version of a major reference
work in art history.
Index
of Christian Art (AU community only). Indexes
images of Christian art up to 1400 using a thematic
approach. Includes bibliography for each work
and an online image if available. Very useful
for identifying works of art on a certain subject
and for comparative iconographical studies.
Joconde.
A catalog of 130,000 art objects located in french
museums, from the 600's to the present. In French.
National
Archives and Records Administration Archival Research
Catalog (ARC). Catalog making National Archives
material available on the Internet.
Smithsonian
Art Inventories Catalog. Contains the Inventory
of American Sculpture and the Inventory of American
Paintings Executed Before 1914.
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