Oxford Art Online (includes the Grove Dictionary of Art)
- Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new windowOxford Art Online provides us with access to Grove Art, with tens of thousands of encyclopedia entries providing information on artists, works, schools, and many important places and events in Art History. Many of the more in-depth entries (primarily artists, schools, and important works) include bibliographies to help further your research & understanding.
- Biography in Context This link opens in a new window This database contains biographies from reference sources as well as full-text articles from periodicals, allowing you to search for people based on one or more personal facts such as birth and death year, nationality, ethnicity, occupation or gender.
Some Broadly Art-focused Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography by Call Number: Reference Collection, N7560 .E53 1998The short essays in this encyclopedia consider themes frequently treated in the visual arts – such as “Witchcraft/Sorcery,” “Martyrdom,” “Mirror/Reflection,” “Death,” “Vanity,” and “Baptism” – tracing their history and relating them to a variety of iconographic narratives from across time and cultures. Although the entries only offer a broad overview, each contains a bibliography and provides a good starting place for further research.
Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art by Call Number: Reference Collection, N7560 .H34 2008Contains entries for religious, classical, historical, and allegorical themes, symbols, and figures frequently depicted in Western art (for example, there are entries for “Chalice,” “cow,” “crucifixion,” and “Charity”), describing their meaning and significance and providing cross-references to related entries.
The Grove Encyclopedia of Materials and Techniques in Art by Call Number: Reference Collection, N8510 .G76 2008 (and online)Contains entries on topics relating to materials, techniques, conservation, and restoration in both traditional and nontraditional media, including ceramics, sculpture, metalwork, painting, works on paper, textiles, video, digital art, and more.
Critical Terms for Art History by Call Number: N34 .C75 2003In individual essays, scholars consider "loaded" terms that are used in the history of art, from "sign" to "meaning," "ritual" to "commodity." Each essay explains and comments on a single term, discussing the issues the term raises and putting the term into practice as an interpretive framework for a specific work of art.
Looking for introductions or information on something else? Try searching worldcat for your keyword + encyclopedia or dictionary.
How to use these sources?
Reference sources provide opportunities for fact-checking and/or short introductory articles on topics.
Often, reference sources can be great resources to help you develop your topic or expand your knowledge of related ideas.
Some uses of reference sources include:
- Reading topical encyclopedia pages to inspire questions and topics
- Using dictionaries and encyclopedias to understand what a word or phrase that shows up in your sources means and why it's important
- Using a multi-language dictionary to translate a word that appears in its original language
- Using an atlas or other image-heavy source to get a sense of where something is/was and what it looks/looked like.
References sources are one option you have for these research needs- one benefit of using reference sources like the ones on this page is that they tend to have a high level of academic authority because they are written and reviewed by academic experts.