Guides: ARTH 426 Early Christian and Medieval Art: Home

Getting Started

For background information, start with Grove Art Online which provides access to foremost scholarly art encyclopedia covering all aspects of Western and non-Western visual art. It includes the full text of The Dictionary of Art, edited by Jane Turner (1996, 34 volumes) – the landmark reference work containing more than 45,000 articles (more than 21,000 biographies and 500,000 bibliographical citations) contributed by 6,700 scholars from 120 countries. Both the 'Guided Tour' and 'Tools and Resources' (available from the Home page) provide useful information on searching Grove/Oxford Art Online.

Bibliographies located in books or at the end of journal articles can be very helpful. To learn if Pepperdine has access to a particular journal, search for the name of the journal in the library catalog, or use the 'Journals & Periodicals' search feature on the Library's Web site.

Art History Databases

Art Full Text
A comprehensive, international resource covering fine, decorative and commercial art, as well as photography, folk art, film, and architecture.

Full-text articles from more than 300 periodicals dating back to 1995
High-quality indexing and abstracting of over 600 periodicals dating as far back as 1984, including 280 peer-reviewed journals
Indexing and abstracting of over 13,000 art dissertations
Indexing of nearly 200,000 art reproductions

Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA)
The Getty Research Institute provides access to the BHA and to the Repertoire de la litterature de l'art (RILA) for no charge on its Web site. The databases, searchable together, cover material published between 1975 and 2007.

Useful General Databases

These online sources contain some art history publications.

JSTOR + ARTstor
JSTOR is an archive of interdisciplinary journals and books. Includes ARTstor: More than 1.8 million digital images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences with an accessible suite of software tools for teaching and research. Helpful videos on using ARTstor can be found on YouTube

Academic Search Complete

Provides full text coverage to peer-reviewed titles in the social sciences, humanities, general science, multi-cultural studies, education and more.
Dissertations & Theses Global (ProQuest)
The most comprehensive collection of doctoral dissertations and master's theses in the world. Dissertations from 1980 forward include 350-word abstracts and Master's theses from 1988 forward include 150-word abstracts. Full text for most dissertations since 1997. Coverage from 1743 to the present.

Specialized Online Encyclopedias

Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts

Entries covering thousands of years of decorative arts production throughout western and non-western cultures including the qualities and historical uses of materials and definitions on art forms and styles.
Grove Encyclopedia of Materials and Techniques

Historical and current uses of materials and techniques in a wide range of areas from painting and sculpture to non-traditional media such as digital and video art.

Coverage includes materials in art practice (e.g. ink, enamel, digital materials); materials in conservation (e.g. adhesives); classes of artifacts (e.g. wallpaper, mosaic, ceramic); techniques and methods (e.g. book binding, gilding, printing, weaving), terms (e.g. rustication), tools (e.g. easel, laser), theory (e.g. technical examination, conservation controversies), fakes & forgeries, and conservation theorists and practitioners.

Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages
Articles on all aspects of the period from the fifth to the fifteenth century, exploring art, architecture, religion, law, science, language, philosophy, and theology, as well as cultural, religious, intellectual, social and political history. With a focus on focus on Europe and Christendom, the Encyclopedia also covers the rise of Islam and people of other cultures with whom Europeans came into contact.

New Catholic Encyclopedia (2d ed 2003)

Entries on persons and subjects related to Catholicism and the humanities, includes biographies of contemporary religious figures, photos, maps, and illustrations.

Online Books

Getty Publications Virtual Library
Includes titles published by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Conservation Institute, and the Getty Research Institute: collection catalogues that highlight masterpieces from Getty collections, translations of texts on the visual arts, essential works of art historical research, exhibition catalogues, and journals

MetPublications
Five decades of Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art) publications on art history, available to read, download, and/or search for free.

ARTH 426 Early Christian and Medieval Art

Librarian

Getting Started

Art History Databases

Useful General Databases

Suggested Subject Searches

Specialized Online Encyclopedias

Online Books