Art History, Art, and Design

Here are some direct links to library databases you can use in your research project:

Oxford Art Online

• 30,000 signed articles and images on every aspect of the visual arts
• Over 6,000 subject entries and over 20,000 biographies, contributed by nearly 7,000 international scholars – all with bibliographies for further research

JSTOR (Art and Art History Journals):

• JSTOR includes more than 125 journal titles and hundreds of ebooks within the discipline of art & art history. 
• Search the Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin and Metropolitan Museum of Art Journal by the artist’s last name and the exact title of the work, or by keywords from the title or description of the work

Fine Arts & Music

• Includes some journal titles that are not included in JSTOR or SAGE
• More than 250 journals covered in databases such as the Wilson Art Index  index are available in full text.

Bibliography of the History of Art

• includes the indexing database Répertoire international de la littérature de l'art (RILA) 1975-1989
• BHA and RILA cover European and American visual arts material including articles from over 1,200 journals. These citation databases, searchable together, cover material published between 1975 and 2007.

Ebook Central

• This is a mega book database that includes art history publications
• you can read online, download a book, download a chapter, or print a certain number of pages (usually at least one or two chapters)

Scholarly peer-reviewed journal articles in the Humanities can be identified by the following characteristics:

• Author(s): They are typically written by professors, researchers, or other scholars who specialize in the field and are often identified by the academic institution at which they work.
• Purpose: They are published by professional associations, university publishers or other academic publishers to report research results and participate in the scholarly communication about something or someone (for example, about the works and accomplishments of the painter Manet)
• Language: They are highly specialized and may use technical language. Not written for a popular audience
• Layout: They will cite their sources and include footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetical citations and/or a list of bibliographic references.
• Content: The discussion is lengthy, there will not be a methodology as in science articles, images are often included

When searching for books, notice that your initial results are limited to just the Pace Libraries:

Using the menu on the left side of the page, under HELD BY MY LIBRARY, change to Libraries Worldwide to search all over the region, nation, and world. (This search type includes Pace.) You may request books that Pace Libraries do not own. Follow the links to InterLibrary Loan. The con to this is that the search is huge and may return more results than you want, including some that will not seem to be best matches.

Important details to remember from your assignment:

Each topic will suggest its own emphasis, but in most cases you will want to devote special attention to the analysis of style and to placing the work into its original cultural and historical context.  How is it expressive of the time in which it was created?  To what tradition, school, or movement does it belong?  Where does it fit in the career of its author (if known)?  To what extent was it influenced by specific works of preceding or contemporary artists? 

If you have specific questions about formatting your paper, please visit The Writing Center

Click here to make an appointment with a writing tutor

Click on the CITING SOURCES tab on the left menu of this page (scroll up a bit and look on left side) for more resources to help you follow the Notes and Bibliography format in the Chicago Style.