Basic Art History Resources

Marmor, Max and Alex Ross, Guide to the Literature of Art History 2 (Ready Reference N380 .M376 2005)
     A valuable reference for major titles in the literature of art history, this title is now available in two editions. See also its great predecessor, Schlosser's Kunstliteratur (see below)

Cicognara, Leopoldo, conte, 1767-1834.
     Catalogo ragionato dei libri d'arte e d'antichit` posseduti dal
     conte Cicognara.
Pisa: Presso Niccolo Capurro co'caratteri di F. Didot, 1821 (Art Cage Z5939.C568)
     An early annotated bibliography of the Count's library, now held at the Vatican.

     The Cicognara Library: Literary Sources in the History of Art and Kindred Subjects (Leopoldo Cicognara Program at the University of Illinois Library in Association with the Vatican Library, 1989-). Microfiche collection of ca 5,000 titles. The Cicognara Program is dedicated to the study and promulgation of literary sources in the history of art. The Program's major projects are to provide the Cicognara Library on microfiche and to publish a critical annotated edition of the Catalogo ragionato dei libri d'arte e d'antichita posseduti dal Conte Cicognara (Pisa, 1821). UNC does not hold this collection; the closest institution that does is the College of William and Mary.

Schlosser, Julius, Ritter von, 1866-1938.
     Die Kunstliteratur; ein Handbuch zur Quellenkunde der neueren
     Kunstgeschichte,
Wien: A. Schroll & Co., 1924. (Reference N5300.S32)
     Also later and French, Italian and Spanish editions. The "classic history of art literature."

Selected Art Bibliographies

Select Bibliography of the Literary Sources of Art History in English

Jones, Art Information: Research Methods and Resources (Ready Reference N85 .J4 1990) and Art Information and the Internet (N59 .J66 1999) are also somewhat dated but still worth consulting for their wealth of information.

Freitag, Art Books : a Basic Bibliography of Monographs on Artists (Reference N40 .A75 1997)
     In addition to these handbooks/bibliographies, the art reference collection includes other bibliographies, library catalogs, major biographical dictionaries (Benezit, Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon, Thieme-Becker, etc.) collection catalogs, exhibition and auction records, directories, dictionaries of terminology and iconography, atlases, etc. The wise graduate student will benefit from browsing the reference shelves.

Recent Art Historiography and Art History Handbooks

Adams, Laurie.
The methodologies of art: an introduction.
New York: Icon Editions, c1996.

Bazin, Germain.
Histoire de l'historie de l'art : de Vasari 'nos jours.
Paris: A. Michel, c.1986

Carrier, David
Principles of art history writing.
University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, c1991.

Carroll, David, ed.
The States of 'theory': history, art, and critical discourse.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1990.

Cheetham, Mark, Michael Ann Holly, and Keith Moxey, eds.
The subjects of art history: historical objects in
contemporary perspectives.
Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Crow, Thomas E.
The intelligence of art.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, c1999.

D'Alleva, Anne.
Methods & theories of art history
London: Laurence King, 2005.

Dilly, Heinrich
Kunstgeschichte als Institution : Studien zur Geschichte einer Disziplin.
Frankfurt am Main : Suhrkamp, 1979.

Elkins, James
Art history versus aesthetics.
Imprint New York : Routledge, 2006.

Elkins, James
Our beautiful, dry, and distant texts: art history as writing.
University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, c1997.

Emerling, Jae
Theory for art history.
Imprint New York: Routledge, 2005.

Hatt, Michael and Charlotte Klonk
Art history: a critical introduction to its methods.
Manchester; New York : Manchester University Press, 2006.

Kubler, George
The shape of time; remarks on the history of things.
Yale University Press, 1962.

Kultermann, Udo.
[Geschichte der Kunstgeschichte. English]
The history of art history.
New York: Abaris Books, 1993.

Minor, Vernon Hyde.
Art history's history.
Upper Saddle River, NY: Prentice Hall, c2001.

Podro, Michael.
The critical historians of art.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982.

Pointon, Marcia R.
History of art: a students' handbook.
London: Routledge, 1997.

Preziosi, Donald.
The art of art history: a critical anthology.
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Preziosi, Donald
Rethinking art history: meditations on a coy science.
New Haven: Yale University Press, c1989.

Roskill, Mark W.
The interpretation of pictures.
Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989.

Roskill, Mark W.
What is art history?
Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989.

van Eck, Caroline and Edward Winters, eds.
Dealing with the visual: art history, aesthetics, and visual culture
Aldershot, Hants, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, c2005.

Woodfield, Richard, ed.
Art history as cultural history : Warburg's projects.
Amsterdam : G+B Arts International, c.2001

For the "State of Research" in various disciplines of art history, see the articles in recent and past issues of Art Bulletin. Use the above phrase and select that journal in BHA to locate. Example: Mariet Westermann, "After Iconography and Iconoclasm: Current Research in Netherlandish Art, 1566-1700," Art Bulletin 84:2 (June 2002), pp.351-72.

Worldcat is a union catalog of several thousand libraries worldwide; bear in mind that not all libraries are represented in Worldcat.

International Directory of Art Libraries includes nearly 3000 specialized art and architecture libraries with instructions for accessing their catalogs, if available online.

European Library provides access to the national libraries of Europe.

LibWeb includes libraries in more than 100 countries.

Be sure to consult the large museum library catalogs (e.g. Getty Research Library, Metropolitan, MOMA, Frick, V&A, Art Institute of Chicago, Smithsonian and others) which you can also access through the IDAL site above. Often, museum libraries include ephemera that may not be represented in other library catalogs. Highly specialized libraries like the RIBA Library (for architecture) or Eastman House (for photography) are important. In addition, major academic libraries (e.g. Harvard, Berkeley, Chicago) and, last but not least, the Library of Congress can be consulted.

Interlibrary loan at UNC is simple and increasingly speedy; you can make your request and track your completed or outstanding requests online.

Virtual Library Museums is a comprehensive directory with links to museums online worldwide, with a new museum site added almost every day. Remember that many museums have libraries that will be relevant to their collections. The extent of museums' digitization of their collections varies widely; two of the largest are the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Academic Search Premier, Ingenta Plus, JSTOR and Project Muse are just a few of the many full-text journal collections accessible through the Libraries E-Indexes and Databases pages.

Bartleby.com is a comprehensive full-text reference collection.

Literature Online (LION) includes English-language literature spanning the Renaissance to the 20th century, including many versions of the Bible, Shakespeare and countless other texts. A major resource for interdisciplinary research.

NetLibrary contains the full texts of more than 10,000 recent titles, including David Carrier's ArtWriting, from university and other major presses, as well as literary classics in the public domain.

Project Gutenberg is a major collection of texts online, mostly pre-1923.

There are many others. The e-wise student will make his/her way through the article databases pages to find the most relevant resources for his or her topic.

ARTstor provides curated collections of art images and associated data for noncommercial and scholarly, non-profit educational use.

CAMIO offers rights-cleared, high-quality art images for class projects, art history and studio art programs, course Web sites, lectures, presentations, and research resources.

Google's image search engine with more than 250 million pictures indexed.