Fine Arts 53 : Dutch and Flemish Painting
Spring 2004
GENERAL SOURCES | ENCYCLOPEDIAS, DICTIONARIES | INDEXES, BIBLIOGRAPHIES | WORLD WIDE WEB RESOURCES | JOURNAL ARTICLES
General Sources
One of the best places to start research is
in the online Library
Catalog. Connecting from Amherst puts you in the Four-College catalog
(which includes Amherst's holdings); there's a separate segment for UMass.
All books are listed by their AUTHORS, TITLES, and SUBJECTS, and you can
also search by KEYWORD.
For books about a particular artist, look up the artist's
name (last name first) as both AUTHOR and SUBJECT, for comprehensive retrieval.
KEYWORD searching is not likely to yield a complete list of
locally-owned books on any particular topic, but it's often a good way
to start; you can type in a common language characterization of your topic,
say "flemish painting", then, if you browse through the resulting list,
select titles relevant to your research interests, and note which official
subject headings are assigned, you can click on those and do a more thorough
SUBJECT search.
SUBJECT searching, as such, requires that you use the exact
word or phrase libraries have chosen to describe your topic. The official
SUBJECT for the above topic, for instance, is Painting, Flemish;
you might also enlarge it to Art, Flemish, or narrow it with a
geographical sub-division like Painting, Flemish--Belgium--Bruges.
Keep in mind that most major subject headings have detailed sub-divisions,
so browse through those as well. The five-volume Library of Congress
Subject Headings, near the Reference Desk, is a thesaurus of official
library terminology. Consult it if you're not sure of the official subject
vocabulary, or use the KEYWORD feature interactively, and/or ask for assistance
from a Reference Librarian.
For quick background information, try the
Britannica Online from any computer running Internet Explorer or Netscape
on the Amherst College campus.
Encyclopedias, Dictionaries
The Dictionary of Art. New York, Grove's Dictionaries,
1996. 34 volumes.
The basic encyclopedia of artists (short biographies), topics,
terms, etc. Many articles have brief bibliographies appended. (Ref N 31
D5 1996) The
Dictionary of Art (click here to connect) is also available online
from any Amherst computer.
Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography. Chicago,
Fitzroy Dearborn, 1998; 2 volumes.
An alphabetically-arranged set of essays on major themes in
art throughout the ages, with lists of selected artworks which utilize
each theme, and good bibliographies. (Ref N 7560 E53 1998)
Dutch Art: An Encyclopedia. New York, Garland, 1997.
Articles on Dutch artists, themes, places, and relevant cultural
events in all historical periods. (Ref N 6941 D88 1997)
Renaissance Art: A Topical Dictionary. Westport CT,
Greenwood, 1987.
Brief, alphabetically-arranged entries on themes, imagery,
and techniques in northern and southern European art of the fourteenth,
fifteenth, and early sixteenth centuries. (Ref N 6370 E27 1987)
Baroque Art: A Topical Dictionary. Westport CT, Greenwood,
1996.
Similar to the above title, for European art of the seventeenth
century. (Ref N 6415 B3 E18 1996)
Adeline's Art Dictionary. Reprint of 1927 ed. Ann
Arbor, Edwards, 1953.
A standard, originally published in French, in 1884, but still
reliable for technical definitions. (Ref N 33 A223 1953)
Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. New York, Scribner's,
1999; 6 volumes.
Concise articles, with brief bibliographies, on people, places,
and events of significance in European Renaissance history and culture.
(Ref CB 361 E52 1999)
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation. Oxford,
Oxford University Press, 1996; 4 vols.
Hundreds of mostly brief entries on all aspects of Reformation
history, culture, personalities, etc., with minimal bibliographies appended
to some articles. (Ref BR 302.8 O93 1996)
Atlas of World History. New York, Oxford, 1999.
Maps, other illustrative material, and short texts. (Ref G
1030 A86 1999)
Indexes, Bibliographies
Art Index. New York, H.W. Wilson, 1929--
An author, title, and subject listing of articles in art journals,
available in printed form (Ref Z 5937 A78) and also accessible online,
as Art
Abstracts for articles published after 1984, and as Art
Index Retrospective for the years prior to that. To connect, click
on these links or on 'Indexes and Databases', beneath 'Research' in the
Library Homepage, then select 'Art'.
RILA (Repertoire International de la Litterature de l'Art)
/ BHA (Bibliography of the History of Art). Santa Monica, Getty Trust,
1973--
Another index to art sources, listing books, journal articles,
and exhibition catalogs, with an emphasis on European art. We have both
titles (RILA metamorphosed into BHA in 1990) in printed
form (Ref Z 5937 R16 / Ref Z 5937 B53), as well as via the Internet; click
here for RILA/BHA
online access or on the 'Indexes and Databases' link beneath 'Research'
in the Library Homepage, then select 'Art'.
Art Books: A Basic Bibliography of Monographs....
New York, Garland, 1997. 2nd ed.
An authoritative one-volume list of the most important books
about artists, arranged alphabetically by artists' last names. (Ref Z
5938. F73 1997)
The Reference Collection contains hundreds of other potentially useful subject-specific guides and bibliographies; ask a Reference Librarian for help if you're not finding what you need.
World Wide Web Resources
The Library Homepage provides reasonably direct, organized access to Internet resources like library catalogs in the U.S. and abroad, search engines for finding particular sites, and from the 'Research' link (click on 'Online Resources by Department', then Art), to meta-sites, image collections, and other art-related Web resources.
A Few Words about Journal Articles
Printed and computerized indexes and bibliographies
provide citations to journal articles which may or may not be owned by
the Amherst College Library. To find out if and where we have a backfile
of a particular journal, you must look up each journal title (not article
titles or authors) in the
Library Catalog. Be attentive to volume numbers and dates since sometimes
we've started or stopped a subscription in the middle of a run.
Please note: some older volumes of journals may be housed
in the Amherst College Depository, an off-campus storage facility. You
can request volumes from the Depository by filling out a brief form which
appears onscreen when you select 'Request Forms' from the
Library Homepage, then click on 'Depository'; materials will be delivered
to the Circulation Desk in Frost the next weekday.
Do you have questions about research in this course? Contact Michael Kasper (mkasper).