PRESCRIBED WORKS OF ART 2023/24
MUSEUM DATABASES
Below I include a selection of museum databases I often use to research Italian prints and drawings. This list is not exhaustive, and you are welcome to explore other collections yourselves. Useful criteria should include whether an online catalogue note comprises key facts about the print and its history, a bibliography, and whether the digitised image is clear and can be enlarged.
ArtStor: https://library.artstor.org/#/login
Online collection of different international museums. Free access through Solo.
British Museum, London: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection
Enormous collection of works on paper, almost all of it digitised. Difficult to zoom in on images. Brief but informative biography on most printmakers, sometimes accompanied by a bibliography. When researching a printmaker I know little about, the British Museum website is usually where I begin.
Europeana: https://www.europeana.eu/en
Digital collection of a number of European public museums. Most helpful when searching for works by specific artists.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/the-collection
Very good online catalogue with high resolution images. Excellent for zooming in on. I tend to use the Met website when I wish to examine a printed image or drawing closely. A good alternative is the Art Institute of Chicago website.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/rijksstudio
High resolution images, and well-researched catalogue notes (although google translate is usually needed as the text is mostly in Dutch). Tends to include information not found on other online museum catalogues.
REFERENCE GUIDES
In most catalogue entries for early modern engravings and woodcuts, you will often find the terms “Bartsch” and/or “Hollstein.” These refer to different compendiums of Old Master prints. These guides are useful in that they contain the basic information of most printed works published from the fifteenth century on. Since the prints are arranged by artist, as well as by location and period, they can also be a helpful tool to contextualise a specific work within an artist’s oeuvre and broader period.
Bartsch: Adam von Bartsch. The Illustrated Bartsch. Norwalk, CT: Abaris books
Over 100 volumes of works by European printmakers from c. 1420 – 1850. The catalogue is based on Le Peintre Graveur, a book by the nineteenth-century Austrian scholar and printmaker, Adam von Bartsch. Includes multiple volumes dedicated to Italian printmakers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Hollstein: Friedrich Wilhelm Hollstein. Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts 1450–1700. Rotterdam: Sound and Vision
The main source of research for northern printmakers. Very well organised. Updated and expanded volumes are referenced as “The New Hollstein.” Although less relevant for this course, might prove helpful if researching Venetian or Florentine copies after Durer and his circle.
PHOTO ARCHIVES
A photo archive is a collection of images depicting works of art in different media. Today’s digital museum collections are the successors to the Art History photo archive which originated in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Photo archives are a depository of a much broader range of sources than most museum databases. They often include: images from exhibition catalogues, auctions, private collections museums, and art books. Photo archives have been used – and continue to be used – by art historians, art dealers, and curators, many of whom leave notes identifying incorrect attributions, bibliographic suggestions, and useful comments.
Most photo archives remain undigitised or very poorly digitised. London has two important photo archives listed below (in addition to two online resources). You are not expected to visit or use either of these. I include them here, however, should you be working at either the Courtauld or the Warburg where they are located.
Bibliotheca Hertziana photographic collection, Rome: https://www.biblhertz.it/en/photographic-collection
A good resource on Roman collections, including prints. Can be a little tricky to use.
RKD, The Hague: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images
While mainly focused on Dutch and Flemish works of art, the RKD have a small collection of Italian prints and drawings, some of which are digitised.
The Warburg Photographic Collection, London: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/photographic-collection/using-the-photographic-collection
Arranged according to subject matter. Excellent photo archive.
The Witt Library, Courtauld Institute of Art, London: https://sites.courtauld.ac.uk/digitalmedia/category/the-witt-library/
Unfortunately most of the Witt remains undigitised. For anyone living or spending time in London, it’s worth visiting. Images are divided into folders according to artist.
© POLITICS, ART AND CULTURE IN THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE: VENICE AND FLORENCE – CATALOGUE OF WORKS OF ART | 2023/24