introduction to digital art historical resources

Department of History of Art and Architecture

School of Histories and Humanities

Introduction to digital Art Historical resources

Karolina Badzmierowska



triarcThe Department’s Irish Art Research Centre

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/TRIARC

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/TRIARC



TARA

Trinity’s Access to Research Archive

http://www.tara.tcd.ie/

http://www.tara.tcd.ie/



Trinity College Library

https://www.tcd.ie/Library/

Digital Collections

http://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/

https://www.tcd.ie/Library/

http://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/



Wikipedia is not a reliable resource.



Example:

Wikipedia entry for “Vincent van Gogh”



8456 revisions since 2001 by 2698 editors



Images: source, licensing / copyright

information and quality vary!



Google as digital Art Historical resource?



Google Advanced Search

http://www.google.com/advanced_search

http://www.google.com/advanced_search



Google Images

http://images.google.ie/




Google Images


Visually similar images

The same image but

different sizes and

sources




Google Books

http://books.google.ie/

http://books.google.ie/



Google Scholar

http://scholar.google.com/

http://scholar.google.com/



Google Maps

https://www.google.ie/maps/

https://www.google.ie/maps/



Street view

Florence

Piazza del Duomo

Panoramic view

Florence

Santa Maria Novella



Google Maps:

Earth View



Google Earth

https://www.google.com/earth/

https://www.google.com/earth/



Google Art Project

https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute

https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute



Collections

Exhibitions

Research

Learning

Library

Archive

Publications

Museum Websites – what to look for?



British Museum http://www.britishmuseum.org/

The National Gallery (UK) http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/

Metropolitan Museum of Art http://www.metmuseum.org/

MOMA http://www.moma.org/

TATE http://www.tate.org.uk/

National Gallery of Art (US) http://www.nga.gov/

The Rijksmuseum https://www.rijksmuseum.nl

http://www.britishmuseum.org/

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/

http://www.metmuseum.org/

http://www.moma.org/

http://www.tate.org.uk/

http://www.nga.gov/

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl



JSTOR

http://www.jstor.org/

Academic Journals

Primary sources, Books

Login

Login via an institution

Trinity College Dublin

http://www.jstor.org/



ARTSTOR

http://library.artstor.org/

Digital Images Library

http://library.artstor.org/



PROJECT GUTENBERGhttp://www.gutenberg.org/

Ebooks

http://www.gutenberg.org/



QUESTIONS?



BREAK



Primary sources

Vitruvius

The Ten Books on Architecture

Jacobus de Voragine

Golden Legend

Giorgio Vasari

Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors & Architects



Vitruvius The Ten Books on ArchitectureRoman architect and engineer | 1st century BC

3 principles of good architecture

Firmitas / solid

Utilitas / useful

Venustas / beautiful

Human body as a source

of architectural proportion

Leonardo da Vinci | Vitruvian Man | 1492

Pen, ink, watercolour and metalpoint on paper

343 x 245 mm

Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice



Jacobus de Voragine Golden LegendItalian chronicler and archbishop of Genoa | 13th century

A collection of factual and fictional

stories from the saints' lives

• The most widely read book, after the

Bible, during the late Middle Ages

• The most important source and “a guide’

to saints’ attributes and iconography

Artist Unknown | St. Patrick (Detail) | Late 13th c.

Jacobus de Voragine Golden Legend

Illuminated manuscript

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical

Gardens, San Marino, California



Giorgio Vasari Lives of the ArtistsItalian painter, architect and writer | 16th century

A compendium of biographies of the

artists from the late Middle Ages to

Vasari’s time

• one of the principal resources for study

of the art and artists of the Italian

Renaissance

• the first art history book

Title page of Giorgio Vasari’s ‘The Lives of the

Most Excellent Italian Architects,

Painters and Sculptors’

1st Edition, Florence, 1550

Library, National Gallery of Art, Washington



EXERCISE 1

Using the online resources listed in the presentation, please find one copy of each of the three books and save it on your desktop as a file or as a bookmark in your Internet browser:

Vitruvius

The Ten Books on Architecture

Jacobus de Voragine

Golden Legend

Giorgio Vasari

Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors & Architects



EXERCISE 1

Feedback

Was it easy / difficult?

If you found a few digital editions of the same book what

made you to decide which one is the best to keep?

Any other comments?



EXERCISE 2

Visit and explore the following online resources and

discuss in pairs (groups) your thoughts on each as art

historical resource.

In pairs (groups) come up with the following (with

examples):

3-5 characteristics of a reliable online resource

3-5 characteristics of not a reliable resource



EXERCISE 2

Online

resources:

Ancient Egypt Onlinehttp://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/

Skenographia Projecthttp://www.skenographia.cch.kcl.ac.uk/

Digital Karnakhttp://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak/

The Corpus of Medieval Narrative Arthttp://www.medievalart.org.uk/

The Bayeux Tapestry Digital Edition http://www.sd-editions.com/bayeux/

Gothic Pasthttp://www.gothicpast.com/

http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/

http://www.skenographia.cch.kcl.ac.uk/

http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak/

http://www.medievalart.org.uk/

http://www.sd-editions.com/bayeux/

http://www.gothicpast.com/



EXERCISE 2

Feedback


What resource would you rate on the top and why?

Any other comments?



EXERCISE 3

Using the resources from the

presentation, search for information

about Folio 32v, Book of Kells:

‘Christ enthroned’ and find:

• 2 articles

• 2 books

• the best reproduction

• 3 different looking reproductions

• 1 map



EXERCISE 3

Feedback


Which resource did you find the most challenging to use?

Any other comments?



DISCUSSION



CONCLUSIONS

Your priorities:

reading list, recommended online resources

and consultations with the librarian

Information (digital) literacy:

finding, assessing, evaluating, using and

referencing information

Be critical about online resources.



[email protected]

http://www.tcd.ie/History_of_Art/

Department of History of Art and Architecture,

Trinity College Dublin

@TCDArtHist

Karolina Badzmierowska

mailto:[email protected]

introduction to digital art historical resources

Education