Art  Tags: art artists design painting  

Try using ARTstor, a large image collection, for identifying specific pieces of work by artists.

The images are high quality, and can be used to examine a work of art in detail.

Some information about the works can also be found by clicking on the titles under the thumbnail images.

Encyclopedias can be useful starting places to find biographical information about your artist as well as information about your work of art, including technical information, patronage, iconography, and provenance.

In the Michener Library first floor reference collection, you'll find:

Encyclopedia of Italian Renaissance & Mannerist Art
~~ N6370 / .E53 2000 REF

Dictionary of Art (Grove)
~~ N31 / .D5 1996 REF
~~ online version in Oxford Art Online

You might also find your work of art described in:

Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art
~~ N7560 / .E53 1998 REF

Most art books are located on the third floor of Michener Library, in the N call number area.

To identify books on your topic, use The Source online catalog from the Library web site.

~~ For example, to find books about your artist, you could start with a keyword search using the artist's name:

sandro botticelli

~~ To see if there is a book about the particular work of art you have chosen, try a keyword search using the name of the work:

last supper

~~ To find a book about the collections of a specific museum, try a keyword search using the name of the museum:

uffizi

You may be able to find information about your selected artist and work of art in a journal article.

The two major article indexes for finding information in art journals are:

~~ Art Abstracts ~ covers journal issues from 1984 to the present
~~ Art Index Retrospective ~ covers journal issues from 1929 to 1984

You might also try these article indexes:

~~ Historical Abstracts
~~ Humanities International Complete
~~ Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance

The version of Google that features scholarly publications is also helpful:

~~ Google Scholar

These free web resources may also be helpful:

Getty Provenance Index Databases
~~ does not currently include information about works prior to 1500

Metropolitan Museum of Art Timeline of Art History
~~ may be useful for basic background information

Smithsonian Institution Research Information System
~~ includes the Pre-1877 Art Exhibition Catalogue Index

Museum web sites sometimes include helpful information about the works in their collections.