Fine Arts: Home
Use this guide to help you with your Fine Arts Research.
Available in the Library
These books, plus many more, can all be found in the Reference section of our library. Search the Library Online Catalog to find additional resources.
Encyclopedia of Aesthetics by Michael Kelly
Call Number:
REF BH 56 .E53 1998
Atlas of World Art
Call Number:
REF G 1046 .E1 O9 2004
The Oxford Dictionary of Art by Ian Chilvers
Call Number:
REF N 33 .O93 1997
From Abacus to Zeus: A Handbook of Art History by James Smith Pierce
Call Number:
REF N 33 .P5 2004
The Lion Companion to Christian Art by Michelle P. Brown
Call Number:
REF N 7830 .L49 2008
The Oxford Companion to Christian Art and Architecture by Peter Murray
Call Number:
REF N 7830 .M87 1996
The Penguin Concise Dictionary of Art History by Nancy Frazier
Call Number:
REF N 5300 .F64 2000
Biblical Art Resources
Here are some online resources that you can use to look up Biblical art:
- Biblical Art on the WWWThis website gathers biblical art from different areas of the internet to make it available in one place. You can search according to topic or biblical text.
- Art in the Christian TraditionThis database includes art reflecting the practice of Christianity from the 1st century A.D. to the present. Many of the images are interpretations of scripture: the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Apocrypha. Sarcophagi, mosaics, frescoes, manuscripts, sculpture, architecture, and paintings are searchable by keyword, scripture reference, iconographic content, personal name, time period, and geographic location.
- Morgan Picture BibleThis website presents 86 zoomable scanned pages of the Picture Bible, a 13th century manuscript with saturated colors and exquisite detail.
Online Art Resources
Here are some online resources that you can use to look up art and do some research:
- Art CyclopediaThis website is an index of online museums and image archives: find where the works of over 8000 different fine artists can be viewed online
- ArtchiveOver 2,000 scanned images of fine art, historical background on art and artists, theory and criticism, and rotating “gallery” exhibitions.
- Mother of all Art and Art History Links PageThe title says it all. Sponsored by the School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan.
- ArtBabbleThis video website designed and maintained by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. It is a place for people to learn about the creation of art, artists, and collections through quality video productions. The site covers a wide array of topics including abstract art, European Art and Design, African Art, graphic design, glass, sculpture, surrealism, and much more.
- TED Talks: ArtTED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, and they hold conferences that bring together some of the leaders in many different fields. TED talks are short and thought provoking talks on a variety of topics, and their art talks include showing off some impressive artwork, exploring the deeper meanings of art in culture, and showing the impact of creativity on the world.
- MetPublicationsThis website from the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a portal that offers access to books, bulletins, and journals published by the Met since 1870.
Online Art History Resources
Here are some online resources that you can use to do some research on art history:
- Heilbrunn Timeline of Art HistoryProvided by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this timeline covers from 8000 B.C. to present day. You can also find thematic essays of different styles and periods.
- Art History Resources on the WebThis site, run by an art history professor, has resources on art from every time and place, including many links to museum resources.
- SmarthistoryThis site is an online art history textbook. It uses multimedia to deliver unscripted conversations between art historians about the history of art.
- Rome After RaphaelThis online exhibit focuses on the intense artistic activity in Rome from the Renaissance to the beginning of the Baroque period, approximately from 1500 to 1600.
Available Online from Art Museums
These art museums all have extensive online databases that you can search for detailed information and images of pieces in their collections. Keep in mind that not every item they own has been added:
- Paris, France
The Louvre is one of the largest and most visited museums in the world. You can access their collections through their databases. - New York, NY
The Met has a searchable database of artworks and related materials from the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. - Philadelphia, PA
This museum is one of the largest art museums in the United States. You can search their collections database for more than 225,000 of their items. - Los Angelos, CA
The Getty has a large collection of European art from the Middle Ages to present day, as well as art from Ancient Greece and Rome. You can search their collections database. - Boston, MA
The MFA is one of the most comprehensive art museums in the world; the collection encompasses nearly 450,000 works of art, over 75% of which is available to browse on their website. - Washington, D.C.
You can search the collections of the National Gallery through their website. - Explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share your own collection of masterpieces.
3D Virtual Tours of Art-Adorned Vatican Spaces
The Vatican has posted a series of virtual tours created by Villanova University of the art and architecture of the four Papal Basilicas, and the the Sistine and Pauline Chapels.- The Dutch museum has over 200,000 of it’s masterpieces digitized and available online.
Women in Art
Library of Congress
This will show you the call number ranges of books in the Fine Arts section:
Virtual Tours
Here are some virtual tours that you can take of international art museums:
- The British Museum is a public institution dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London, England. Its permanent collection of some eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence, having been widely collected during the era of the British Empire.
- The Louvre is the world’s second-largest art museum and a historic monument in Paris, France, and is best known for being the home of the Mona Lisa. The Louvre owns 615,797 objects of which 482,943 are accessible online and displays 35,000 works of art in eight curatorial departments.
- The Rijksmuseum is a Dutch national museum dedicated to arts and history in Amsterdam. The museum has on display 8,000 objects of art and history, from their total collection of 1 million objects from the years 1200–2000, among which are some masterpieces by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Johannes Vermeer. The museum also has a small Asian collection, which is on display in the Asian pavilion.
- The Vatican Museums are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of the most renowned Roman sculptures and most important masterpieces of Renaissance art in the world. The museums contain roughly 70,000 works, of which 20,000 are on display.
- The Dalí Theatre and Museum is a museum dedicated to the artist Salvador Dalí in his home town of Figueres, in Catalonia, Spain. Salvador Dalí is buried in a crypt below the stage.