Welcome
This guide covers a set of high-quality sources of information for art history that can be a good starting point for your research.
Key online reference work for art history
Bibliographies for art history
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Art Full Text & Art Index Retrospective This link opens in a new windowBibliography of art and architecture
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Artbibliographies Modern This link opens in a new windowBibliographical database on modern art (19th and 20th century)
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BHA and RILA This link opens in a new windowBibliography of the history of western art
(materials published between 1975-2007)
Interdisciplinary databases
Interdisciplinary bibliographies covering a specific historical period or subject
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International Medieval Bibliography (IMB) This link opens in a new windowBibliography on medieval studies, relevant for research on medieval art and architecture
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IBSS This link opens in a new windowBibliography for the social sciences, relevant to subjects such as sociology of art, cultural policy, architecture and urbanism
General databases
- Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new windowMultidisciplinary bibliographic and full-text database
- Web of Science core collection This link opens in a new windowSearch the world’s leading scholarly journals, books, and proceedings in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities and navigate the full citation network
- Scopus This link opens in a new windowCovers a large part of the English-language literature in science, medicine and parts of the social sciences and arts and humanities.
Oxford Bibliographies Online
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Oxford Bibliographies Online - Art HistoryResearch guide for art history, combining the best features of an annotated bibliography and an encyclopedia.
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Oxford Bibliographies Online - Cinema and MediaResearch guide for cinema and media studies, combining the best features of an annotated bibliography and an encyclopedia.
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Oxford Bibliographies - Literary and Critical Theory This link opens in a new windowResearch guide for literary and critical theory, combining the best features of an annotated bibliography and an encyclopedia.
Smartcat
Collections art historical libraries
Many publications that are of interest to art historical research are not available in university libraries, but only in the libraries of museums and art historical institutes. The holdings of these libraries cannot always be found through SmartCat. You need to search the catalogues/databases of these institutes.
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Kubikat This link opens in a new window
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Unione Romana This link opens in a new window
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RIBA British Architectural Library This link opens in a new window
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Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed This link opens in a new window
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Groninger Museum This link opens in a new window
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Museum Boijmans van Beuningen This link opens in a new window
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Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam This link opens in a new window
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Van Abbemuseum This link opens in a new window
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Van Gogh Museum This link opens in a new window
eBooks
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E-books at University Groningen Library This link opens in a new window
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Getty Research Portal This link opens in a new windowThe Getty Research Portal is an online search platform providing access to digitized art history texts in the public domain.
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Art Theorists of the Italian Renaissance This link opens in a new windowA collection of art and architectural treatises in Italian, Latin and English 1470-1775
Google Scholar
Newspapers and magazines
For current topics it is useful to search for articles in newspapers and magazines.
Nexis Uni offers full-text articles from Dutch and foreign newspapers. Articles by freelance journalists or art critics are not always included.
Delpher
Use Delpher for full text search of Dutch books, newspapers and magazines from the 17th until the 20th century from the digital collections of libraries, scientific institutes and cultural heritage organizations in the Netherlands.