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​​​​​ Main Databases

Art Source (EBSCO)

Art Source covers a broad range of related subjects, from fine, decorative and commercial art, to various areas of architecture and architectural design. Providing over 600 full-text journals, more than 220 full-text books, and a collection of over 63,0000 images, it is designed for use by a diverse audience, including art scholars, artists, designers, students and general researchers. 

ARTbibliographies Modern (ProQuest)

This d atabase contains a specialist bibliography for the study of modern and contemporary art. Covers all art forms, including fine art, digital art, crafts, design, and photography. Features full abstracts and indexing from art journals published from the late 1960s onwards.

Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) and Répertoire international de la littérature del'art (RILA) (Getty Museum)

BHA and RILA provide an extensive bibliography of literature about the history of Western art ranging from late antiquity to the present. The indexed materials include books, articles conference proceedings, exhibition catalogs and more. The subjects covered are painting, sculpture, architecture, decorative and applied arts-crafts, photography, new media, and performance art.

Grove Art Online (Oxford University Press)

Grove Art Online is the foremost scholarly art encyclopedia, covering both Western and non-Western art. The content of Grove Art encompasses all aspects of visual culture, it features thousands of searchable images, over 15,000 subject entries and over 22,000 biographies, contributed by nearly 7,000 international scholars – all with bibliographies for further research.

JSTOR

A multidisciplinary database with full text that covers a wide range of topics and provides access to thousands of academic journals in various fields.

Please note: a large number of journals are indexed from the first issue with coverage up to 3-4 years back from the current date.


Related databases

Anthropological Literature (EBSCO) - Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University

Anthropological Literature is published by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University. it is an international resource that provides comprehensive indexing for the fields of social and cultural anthropology, Old and New World archaeology, physical anthropology and anthropological aspects of related subjects. It includes articles, reports, commentaries and obituaries found in hundreds of journals and monographic series. It features works dating from the early 19th century to the present.

Art and Archaeology Technical Abstracts (AATA Online) (Getty)

AATA Online is a comprehensive database of the Getty Conservation Institute, it contains over 137,000 abstracts of literature related to the preservation and conservation of material cultural heritage, such as works of art, cultural objects, museum collections, architecture, archaeology and more.

Arts & Humanities Citation Index (WOS) (Thomson Reuters / ISI)

Arts & Humanities Citation Index provides researchers and students with access to bibliographic and citation information from over 1,700 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals.

Fine Arts and Music Collection (Gale Academic OneFile)

Fine Arts & Music Collection is a powerful database that places information and full-text materials from over 5 million articles for the use of researchers and students of the arts. It provides information on hundreds of arts-related topics such as art theory and therapy, music, cinema and more.

Index of Christia​n​​ Art (Princeton University)

The Index of Christian Art houses contextualizes and presents images and information relating to the iconographic traditions of the medieval world. The online database makes available approximately 200,000 images and data from early apostolic times until the sixteenth century as well as works from multiple medieval faith traditions and also secular imagery.

 

General resources

Academic OneFile (Gale)

A multidisciplinary database that includes articles from academic journals in different areas of research.

International Medieval Bibliography Online (Brepols)

Multidisciplinary Bibliography of Europe, North Africa and the Near East (300-1500). It covers Classics, English Language and Literature, History and Archaeology, Theology and Philosophy, Medieval European Languages and Literature, Arabic and Islamic Studies, History of Education, Art History, Music, Theatre and Performance Arts, Rhetoric and Communication Studies

Index of Hebrew Perio​ dicals (IHP)

The Index to Hebrew Periodicals is a multi-disciplinary bibliographic indexing project covering articles from Hebrew periodicals, collections, and monographs.


Primary Sources

N 6922.V313 1885

Vasari, Giorgio, 1511-1574

Lives of the most eminent painters, sculptors, and architects

A major essay on the lives and works of major artists from the Renaissance era and discussion on the development of the main artistic genres of this period.

Archives Unbound

Archives Unbound presents topically-focused digital collections of historical documents that support the research and study needs of scholars and students. Collections in Archives Unbound cover a broad range of topics from the Middle Ages forward. from Witchcraft to World War II to twentieth-century political history.

Primary sources about art can be found in catalogs or archives of national libraries, museums and major research institutes around the world. For example:

Gallica

The digital library of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

MoM A Archives

The Archive was established in 1989 to collect, organize, preserve, and make accessible documentation concerning the Museum's art-historical and cultural role in the 20th and 21st centuries. It is also a center of research for primary source material concerning many aspects of modern and contemporary art, including private archives, collectives, galleries, dealers, art historians, critics, etc.

 

E-Books

Magnes

MetPublications

Publications of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the subject of art theory and history starting from 1964, available to read, download and research.

 

Online Encyclopedias

Grove Art Online (Oxford University Press)

Grove Art Online is the foremost scholarly art encyclopedia, covering both Western and non-Western art. The content of Grove Art encompasses all aspects of visual culture, it features thousands of searchable images, over 15,000 subject entries and over 22,000 biographies, contributed by nearly 7,000 international scholars – all with bibliographies for further research.

The Oxford dictionary of the classical world

The dictionary covers key aspects of ancient Greek and Roman life and literature, such as science, social structure, material culture philosophy, and religion and mythology, and contains comprehensive articles on central figures, both real and mythological.


Additional Resources

Europeana

Europeana is a digital platform for Europe's cultural and scientific heritage from prehistory to the modern day. The site includes millions of items from a range of Europe's leading galleries, libraries, archives, and museums.

Theoi Project

Theoi Project, a site exploring Greek mythology and the gods in classical literature and art. The aim of the project is to provide a comprehensive, free reference guide to the gods, spirits, fabulous creatures and heroes of ancient Greek mythology and religion.


Image Resources

Art Resource

Art Resource is a fine art photo archive that offers a range of material from prehistoric times to the present. With more than 1,000,000 searchable fine art images from the world's leading sources. The objects are cross-referenced by subject, title, artist, period, place, and medium - for efficient and instant access.

Web Gallery of Art

The Web Gallery of Art is a virtual museum and searchable database of Western (European) fine arts of the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, and Impressionism periods (1000-1900), currently containing over 40.100 reproductions. Artist biographies, commentaries, guided tours, period music, catalog, free postcard and mobile services are provided.

Artsy Education

The Art Genome Project is the classification system and technological framework that powers Artsy. It maps the characteristics (“genes") that connect artists, artworks, architecture, and design objects across history. The site hosts a wide range of works from the art world with detailed information, including links that encourage the discovery of similar works according to different criteria.

Google Arts & Culture

The Google Art Project is a website that contains an online collection of high-resolution images of tens of thousands of selected artwork from leading art galleries around the world. The site also enables a virtual visit to the museums and international galleries in which the works of art are located.