Subject & Course Guides: Subjects & Symbols in Art: Image Collections Searchable by Subject

Iconclass

Iconclass. A classification system designed for art and iconography. It is the most widely accepted scientific tool for the description and retrieval of subjects represented in images (works of art, book illustrations, reproductions, photographs, etc.) and is used by museums and art institutions around the world. It can be searched using multiple keywords, as well as combinations of keywords and classification numbers. A new feature is the inclusion of 85,000 images from the RKDImages database, which act as visual scope notes" for the use of Iconclass. Each image is hyperlinked to its full record in the RKD's database; there is also a link to the large German national "Bildindex" database.

Iconclass Indexes

Five series of volumes are currently being published that provide iconographic access to paintings and prints. The current series are: Early German Prints; Early Netherlandish Painting; Rembrandt and his School; Dutch Prints; and Italian Prints. KU owns all the available volumes and they can be located using the Library Catalog.

Index Iconologicus

Index Iconologicus. 433 fiche + printed guide. Sanford, NC: Microfilming Corp. of America, 1980. 60,000 entries (both text and images) assembled from 20 major sources, with an emphasis on 16th and 17th century prints. Arranged by name, word, place, concept and theme. In three sections: (1) Preface: an overview of the index with a bibliography, symbol and filing principles, (2) Primordia: important resources in the history of printing, and (3) Index.

D.I.A.L.

The Decimal Index to the Art of the Low Countries (D.I.A.L.) is a collection of 7,500 photographs of Dutch and Flemixh paintings, drawings and prints from the period roughly 1400-1700. The photographs were selected and indexed by the University of Leiden and the Netherlands Institute for Art History at the Hague.

Every photograph is supplemented with the following information in English: the name of the artist or the school to which the work can be attributed; measurements, signature and date (if any), existing basic literature on and location of the work; the title of the subject; and a photonumber "Rijksbureau". In addition, each photograph has an Iconographic-Index number printed at the top left corner. This number corresponds to a specific subject, as presented in Iconclass, the iconographic system composed by Dr. H. van de Waal of Leiden University, and colleagues.

D. I. A. L. is an excellent research tool for those persons working with iconographic themes in late medieval and Renaissance Dutch and Flemish art. The collection is approached by knowing the Iconclass number for the subject desired. The photographs themselves are filed by Iconclass number. At the Univ. of Kansas, the D.I.A.L. collection is located in locked cabinets within the Art & Architecture Library. Ask at the desk to check out the cabinet keys.

Index of Christian Art

King David in the Index of Christian Art by Edited by Colum Hourihane
Princeton, NJ: Index of Christian Art, Dept. of Art and Archaeology, Princeton Univ. in association with Princeton Univ. Press, 2002. David--the greatest king of Israel, the founder of Jerusalem, and one of the pivotal figures of the Old Testament--was a rich source of inspiration for artists and their patrons throughout the medieval world. The objects catalogued here range in date from the third to the 15th century, and represent fourteen different media. Each entry gives detailed information on the object's current location, date, and primary subject.

Index of Christian Art. A database with over 20,000 records for works of art accompanied by over 60,000 images in color and black and white; includes works of art produced without geographical limitations from early apostolic times up to A.D. 1400 (extended in the case of the Morgan and Princeton Library projects to include this manuscript holdings up to the end of the sixteenth century); emphasis on art of the western world; 17 different media are represented in the archive including manuscripts, metalwork, sculpture, painting, glass, and so forth.

Time in the Medieval World: Occupations of the Months and Signs of the Zodiac in the Index of Christian Art by Edited by Colum Hourihane
Princeton: Dept. of Art & Archaeology, Princeton Univ.; University Park: In association with Penn State Univ. Press, 2007. The measurement and documentation of time has been a universal issue since the dawn of civilization--and no more so than in the medieval period, when images representing the signs of the zodiac and occupations of the months were commonly used. Nature and the occupations or labours that each month brought are reflected in earthly calendars, while the movements of the heavens and their impact on mankind were recorded in the signs of the zodiac. Based on the Index of Christian Art, this volume includes several hundred works of art from these twin calendars.
Virtue & Vice: The Personifications in the Index of Christian Art by Edited by Colum Hourihane
Princeton, NJ: Index of Christian Art, Dept. of Art and Archaeology, Princeton Univ. in association with Princeton Univ. Press, c2000. Includes the complete holdings of the more than 230 personifications of Virtues and Vices, ranging from Abstinence to Wisdom and from Ambition to Wrath, in the Index of Christian Art's text files. Documents the occurrence of Virtues and Vices in over 1,000 works of art produced between the fifth and fifteenth centuries.

Digital Image Collections

ARTstor Help & Tutorial, One of the most comprehensive image resources licensed by KU is ARTstor with more than 1 million images on a wide-range of topics. This guide introduces the resource and helps users learn to find, download, save, print, organize, and share images

Art Resource. A large commercial photo archive of fine art from prehistoric times to the present. Includes over three million transparencies and black and white photographs of works cross-referenced by subject, title, artist, period, place, and medium. The Advanced Search allows searching by subject or keyword.

Bridgeman Art Library. A commercial vendor founded in 1972 offering art, culture, and history images from over 8,000 collections; more than 55,000 entries and 46,497 images from over 29,000 artists. The Basic search allows keyword searching while the Advanced Search allows phrase searching or Boolian searching for subjects.

Image Gateway. Include here are licensed commercial sources, publicly available collections, and images digitized from resources in the KU libraries, museums, and academic departments. Information and terms of use for each collection is found in the listing. It can take several steps to do a successful subject search but the image quality is excellent.

Oxford Art Online. Gateway access to Grove Art Online and other Oxford art reference resources. In addition to the more than 23,000 subject entries and 21,000 biographies, the product offers 40,000 image links and 5,000 images contained within Grove Art Online. There is an "Search for Images Only" box available but sometimes the results are not useful.

Digital Images Collection Guide A Directory of image projects organized by topic such as Art & Art History, Sculpture, Photography, Architecture.