Fine Arts 53 : Dutch and Flemish Painting : The Art of Beholding
Spring 2006
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)
Adeline's Art Dictionary. Ann Arbor, Edwards, 1953. Reprint of 1927 ed.
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.
Entries on places, people, events, etc. of the period from the mid-fourteenth century through the mid-seventeenth, some with minimal bibliographies appended. (Ref CB 361 EW52 1999)
Europe 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern Period. New York, Scribner's, 2004; 6 volumes.
Similar to the title above, with slightly different chronological coverage. (Ref D 209 E97 2004)
There are dozens of other potentially useful specialized encyclopedias and dictionaries. Ask at the Frost Library Reference Desk for recommendations.
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 'Research' in the Library Homepage, then 'Indexes and Databases', 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 'Research' in the Library Homepage, then 'Indexes and Databases', then '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 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 'Subject Guides by Academic 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 click on 'Research' in the Library Homepage, then select 'Request Forms', then 'Depository'; materials will be delivered to the Circulation Desk in Frost the next weekday.
More and more journals are offering full-texts in electronic form; those we subscribe to are linked to records in the online Library Catalog and/or you can search for electronic versions using the Journal Locator. Also, when using electronic indexes (like Art Abstracts or RILA/BHA), you'll see a button labeled "AC Links" which permits you to search for electronic versions of articles you find cited; if the Library does not have access to an electronic version, "AC Links" will automatically search for a print-format version in the Library Catalog.
Do you have questions about research in this course? Contact Michael Kasper