ARTH 3370: Northern Renaissance Art: Home

Often a good place to begin your research on a specific object is the website of the museum that owns it. This copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle is owned by the Toledo Museum of Art. Its collections database contains a bibliography of published references to this artwork (see below). A bibliography like this can give you an important place to start gathering information about your artwork.

Search the five essential databases listed on this page for your artist and/or artwork. Pay attention to variations in spelling or phrasing that could impact your search results. This can be especially important for rare books, which can be known by the names of their collectors, owners or institutions or by nicknames, and which also can have several different translations of their titles. For example, the book above is called the "Liber Chronicarum," the "Book of Chronicles" and the "Nuremberg Chronicle." You could search for the name of the artist responsible for the woodcuts (Michel Wolgemut) or the printer (Anton Koberger). 

You should contextualize your artwork in your research. Find other artworks you want to discuss in relation to it. This could mean works by the same artist, of the same subject, in the same medium, or made at the same time or place. How you choose to contextualize your artwork will establish the direction of your research.

In order to do this, pay attention to which artworks are traditionally discussed in relation to yours and think of ways to broaden this discussion. I like to search Artstor for themes to discover new works.  

Don't forget that the best resources for art historical research are almost always books. Leave yourself enough time to use OhioLINK and request books from other libraries that may take several days or a week to arrive.

Image: Michel Wolgemut (German, 1434-1519). "Venice" from the Liber Chronicarum. 1493. Anton Koberger (printer) (German, 1445-1513). Toledo Museum of Art.