Art History Resources: Textbooks

Basic sources for researching an art historical topic including finding books, journal articles, biographies, images, and web directories.

By Time Period

Photography

Definition

A textbook is defined as a book used in schools or colleges for the formal study of a subject. In the case of art history textbooks, these are usually written by distinguished faculty who have not only a deep understanding of the subject but also experience in presenting the information to students. The textbooks cited here are lavishly illustrated, include maps and graphs, and timelines, essays and commentary, as well as bibliography for further reading. They provide an overview of the subject and are an excellent starting place to learning about the art and the artists.   

Comprehensive

smarthistory. Art History. Conversation.

Smarthistory, an online art history textbook with Western focused content and presented by the Khan Academy. Organized by artist, theme, or time period, it includes  over 300 essays and almost 600 unscripted video conversations. New content is added regularly, and all content is freely available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license.

Asian Art

Architecture