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Renaissance Men/Women
Bernadine Barnes
Web Exercise
Examine these three web pages about Michelangelo. Be prepared to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each page.
Finding Books
Use the Online Catalog to locate books, microforms, films, and other materials in the Reynolds Library. Search by Author or Title in the Basic search or by keywords or phrases in the Guided Keyword search.
Art materials have N call numbers and are concentrated on Reynolds 6. This section is divided by medium:
- N - Visual Arts
- NA - Architecture
- NB - Sculpture
- NC - Drawing, Design, Illustration
- ND - Painting
- NE - Print Media
- NK - Decorative Arts
- NX - Arts in General
These broad categories are broken down further by time period, movement, subject or artist:
- ND615 - Painting-Italian Renaissance
- ND623 R2 - Raphael
- N7952 - Christian Art-Italian Renaissance
- NB611-623 - Sculpture-Italian Renaissance
- NA190-1555.5 - Architecture, History
- NX440-632 - History of the Arts
Each book record in the online catalog also contains Library of Congress Subject Headings, which can help you locate books on a similar topic. Click on the subject heading in the online catalog to go to a list of books that share that subject heading. Some examples are:
- Raphael, 1483-1520
- Art, Renaissance Italy Florence Exhibitions
- Art and society
- Aesthetics
- Symbolism in architecture
- Cappella Sistina (Vatican Palace, Vatican City)
- Grotesque in art
- Art patronage Italy
- Painting, Renaissance Flanders
- Women, History, Renaissance, 1450-1600
You may also need to look at resources outside of the Art section. The Italian Renaissance History (DG530), Political Science (J), Women, Gender and Family Studies (HQ) and History of Roman Catholicism (BX940-1745) sections will have titles related to your topics.
Back to topReference Works
Use Reference Resources to get background information on an artist, work of art or concept. Many of these sources include bibliographies which list additional books and journal articles that would be useful for further research on the topic. All Reference materials are shelved on Wilson 4. These are a few selections from the available resources:
- Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance Ref CB361 C27 2003
- Encyclopedia of the Renaissance (6 vols.) Ref CB361 E52 1999
- Longman Companion to Renaissance Europe Ref D203 F58 2000
- Extraordinary Women of the Medieval and Renaissance World Ref HQ1143 E93 2000
- The Dictionary of Art (34 vols.) Ref N31 D5 1996 and online (Oxford Art Online)
- Dictionary of Art Terms Ref N33 L75 2004
- Oxford Companion to Western Art Ref N33 O923 2001
- Dictionnaire Critique et Documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs de tous les Temps et de tous les Pays (Benezit) (14 vols.) Ref N40 B47 1999
- Artwords Ref N71 P32 1997
- Renaissance Art and Architecture Ref N6370 C32 2004
- European Art of the Fifteenth Century Ref N6371 Z8413 2005
- European Art of the Sixteenth Century Ref N6374 Z8413 2006
- International Dictionary of Art and Artists (2 vols.) Ref N7425 I67 1990
- Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography (2 vols.) Ref N7560 E53 1998
- Macmillian Encyclopedia of Architects (4 vols.) Ref NA40 M25 1982
- The World's Master Paintings Ref ND40 W75 1992
- Encyclopedia of the Scientific Revolution: From Copernicus to Newton Ref Q125 E53 2000
Journal Article Databases
Use electronic databases to find journal articles, book chapters and reviews. The library has over 200 databases for finding journal articles. In the left sidebar, expand the Subject List under Arts and Humanities to find databases relevent to Art History.
Remember, these databases include articles from scholarly journals, magazines and newspapers. If your professor requires that you use scholarly journal articles for your project, take a look at this checklist to see if your articles are appropriate! Many databases also allow you to limit to scholarly or peer-reviewed journals. Use this option when it is available! When in doubt, ASK your professor or a librarian!
Arts Databases
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Art Index
"Provides citations from over 250 publications such as periodicals, yearbooks, museum bulletins, exhibition listings, interviews, and film reviews. Also indexes reproductions of works of art that appear in indexed periodicals. Subjects covered include: advertising art, antiques, archaeology, architecture and architectural history, art history, crafts, decorative arts, folk art, graphic arts, industrial design, interior design, landscape architecture, motion pictures and film, museology, non-western art, painting, photography, pottery, sculpture, television, and textiles."
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Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals
"Indexes journal articles, book and website reviews, exhibition reviews, and obituaries for architecture, architectural history, design, archaeology, interior design, landscape architecture, historic preservation, and urban planning. Includes "physical details" field, noting such items as photos, plans, drawings, and sections. International in scope."
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Bibliography of the History of Art-BHA
"Covers the current international literature on the history of art in Europe and the New World from late antiquity to the present. Includes both the fine arts (architecture, sculpture, painting, drawing and prints) and decorative and applied arts (popular art, folk art). Indexes and abstracts journals, books, conference proceedings, essays, exhibition catalogues, selected art dealers' catalogues, doctoral dissertations and microform publications."
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Oxford Art Online (Online version of The Dictionary of Art)
"Covers art and culture from prehistory to the 1990s. Its multicultural approach offers detailed analyses of civilizations from Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe, and the Pacific. Provides a guide to the visual arts: painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, drawing, and printmaking, as well as the decorative arts."
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International Repertory of the Literature of Art-RILA
"The International Repertory of the Literature of Art (RILA) is the predecessor of BHA. BHA and RILA together cover literature published since 1973. RILA includes abstracts and indexes on all aspects of European and American art and architecture. European art is covered from late Antiquity (4th c.) to 1989. American art is covered from the European discoveries (16th c.) to 1989. Art reflecting the Western tradition in other parts of the world is also included. All types of publication are covered: books, periodical articles, reviews, conference proceedings, Festschriften, collected essays, exhibition catalogues, museum publications, and doctoral dissertations."
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MLA International Bibliography
"Indexes articles, books, chapters of books, conference proceedings, dissertations, and working papers on topics relating to literature, modern languages, folklore, and linguistics."
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Web of Science (Arts and Humanities Citation Index)
"Contains three ISI Citation Databases (Sciences, Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences), which together index over 8,000 peer-reviewed journals. It provides bibliographic data, author abstracts, and cited references. Useful for searching databases for articles that cite a known author or work. Citation searching also allows a researcher to use a given work as a subject term in order to identify more recent articles about the same topic."
Full-text, Multi-subject Databases
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Academic Search Premier
"Provides abstracts, indexing, and full-text for journals covering the social sciences, humanities, education, and more."
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JSTOR
"A full-text database of archived issues of academic journals. Since JSTOR is a backfiles project, a typical coverage range is the beginning of a journal until three or five years ago."
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Project MUSE
"Provides access to the full text of over 100 scholarly journals in the arts and humanities and social sciences."
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ProQuest
"Contains articles covering the humanities, social sciences, sciences, and business. Databases include Research Library, Ethnic NewsWatch, and ProQuest Religion."
Historical Databases
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Historical Abstracts (history other than the U.S. and Canada)
"Historical Abstracts provides indexing and abstracts for journal articles, books, and dissertations covering the history of the world from 1450 -- except the U.S. and Canada. For similar coverage of the U.S. and Canada, use America History and Life."
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ITER-Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance
"Indexes books and over 500 periodicals concerning Europe and the Middle East from 400-1700. Includes history, literature, art, politics and government, etc. The separate book database covers books, materials published in books, and collected essays."
Locating Journals in the Library
Find out if the Library subscribes to the journal you need through the Journals page. If we subscribe to the journal, the catalog will display information regarding print and/or electronic versions of the journal. You can also use the "subject browse" feature to view journals by subject area (selected journals only).
Remember, if the Reynolds Library does not have the journal (or book) that you need, request it via Interlibrary Loan. The newest issues of the Art periodicals are located in Current Periodicals.
Back to topWeb Resources
After you have consulted books and journal articles, you may also want to use web resources. Take a look at Evaluating Web Resources as you critique the websites you find. These sites contain reliable information:
- artdaily.com (First Art Newspaper on the Net)
- Art History Resources on the Web
- Artlex Art Dictionary
- Great Buildings Collection
- Infomine (Search within Visual & Performing Arts)
- Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum
- Michelangelo Buonarroti
- National Gallery, London (Go through the Collection link)
- National Gallery of Art: Italian Painting of the 16th Century (Washington, DC. There are many different online tours and collections that feature Renaissance artists and themes.)
- Raphael
- Vatican Museums
- Voice of the Shuttle
- Web Gallery of Art
- World Wide Web Virtual Library: History of Art
Citing Your Sources
The latest editions of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers and A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian) are available in exchange for an ID at the Reference Desk in the Library. Abbreviated versions of the style guides are available online. The online versions don't include all of the rules, so please consult the print copies if you are dealing with a complicated resource!
To make sure that you are adhearing to Wake Forest's Honor Code, please consult the Copyright Resources and Plagiarism Resources pages.
Need Help?
Good luck in your search! If you are not finding enough information, ASK:
- Kaeley McMahan, Reference, 758-4661, AIM: kaeleymc
- Request a Personal Research Session
- call the Reference Desk for help at ext. 5475