Finding Information On Religious Art
Welcome to the Finding Information on Religious Art guide. This page provides research strategies and resources that can help you explore religious elements in different artworks. The Art History and Religions and Cultures librarians suggest several resources to assist you in your exploration of art, architecture, and performing arts in relation to religious traditions and the religious phenomenon itself. We offer specific resources, searches, and subject headings (controlled vocabulary that functions as dynamic hyperlinks) that will support your research as you delve into the dynamics between religious beliefs, religions, and the arts.
Sofia and Search Tips
Sofia is a discovery tool shared by all academic libraries in Québec. Here, we are suggesting two main ways to explore Sofia. You can use a keyword search: you’ll look for specific words within a bibliographical notice, a record that describes a document. We suggest some search strategies using keywords.
The Library of Congress determines the subject headings suggested below. In the bibliographical notices, you’ll also see Vedettes-matières created by a team of cataloguers at Université Laval. These local subject headings are used in francophone academic libraries in Québec. We are also suggesting some relevant subject headings.
You can mix and match subject headings, keywords, titles, authors, and other fields. Just ensure you search in the right index (i.e. a title in the title index). The indexes are in a drop-down menu next to the search boxes in Sofia.
Buddhism & Arts
Christianity & Arts
- Christian art and symbolism
- Church architecture
- Christianity AND (theatre OR music OR dance OR object manipulation)
- Catholic Church and art
- Art, Early Christian
- Christianity AND (theatre OR music OR dance)
- New Testament—In art
- Bible—In art—20th century
- Vestments, altar cloths, etc.
- Jesus Christ—Art
- Christianity and the arts
- Mary,—Blessed Virgin, Saint—Art
- Christian saints in art
- Church decoration and ornament
- Singing—Religious aspects—Christianity
Hinduism & Arts
Religious Phenomenon & Arts
Other elements to add to your searches
- Women in the Bible
- Femmes dans la Bible
- Performing religions in Public
- Religion and drama
- Performance—Religious aspects
- Theater—Religious aspects
- Rites and ceremonies
Examples:
su: Theater Religious aspects AND kw: theolog*
Databases
ARTStor ARTstor is a comprehensive digital image database that includes catalogue data and can be searched. It covers a wide range of periods and cultures and provides documentation on various visual art forms like architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, design, and many more. It is also possible to search ARTstor from within JSTOR.
Thesaurus Linguae Graecae You must login to use the Thesaurus. The first time you use this resource, you will be required to create an account. The TLG Project is a digital collection of literary texts written in Greek, dating from the Homeric era to the fall of Byzantium in AD 1453.
Web of Science: Arts and Humanities Citation Index Web of Science is a powerful database that can help you locate documents, but also trending journals in a specific field.
Art in the Christian Tradition (ACT) database by the Vanderbilt University Divinity Library "The Art in the Christian Tradition (ACT) database is a regularly updated visual image internet resource. (...) The visual images in the ACT database represent the continuum of the practice of Christianity from the 1st century A.D. to the present. Many of the images are interpretations of Christian scripture: the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Apocrypha. Sarcophagi, mosaics, frescoes, manuscripts, sculpture, architecture, and paintings are searchable by keyword, scripture reference, iconographic content, personal name, time period, and geographic location." (Source: database website, December 2024)
Websites
Art and Archaeology Technical Abstracts AATA Online is a free research database containing abstracts of literature related to the preservation and conservation of material cultural heritage. It has been managed and published by the Getty since 1983. AATA Online contains over 170,000 records and adds approximately 4,000 new records each year through regular updates. The database also includes selected subject-specific bibliographies produced as part of the Getty Conservation Institute’s own conservation and scientific research projects or as part of specific collaborative projects in which the Institute is involved.
Kelsey Museum of Archaeology (University of Michigan) - Digital collection containing the art and archaeological artifacts of the ancient Mediterranean world and its supporting archival collection, held at the Kelsey Museum at the University of Michigan.
The Metropolitain Museum of Arts (The MET) The MET has a rich collection available online.
Perseus Digital Library
This database is an evolving digital library of resources, textual and visual, for the study of the ancient world.Includes catalogues of sites, buildings and objects (coins, sculpture, etc.), texts and translations, dictionaries, reference tools, atlases, etc.
Poetry in Translation - Open access translations of ancient poetry by A.S. Kline, includes texts from Classical Greece and Classical Rome.
Others
Google Advanced Image Search allows you to find images with words, by image size, ratio, colours, types (face, photo, animation, …), format, usage rights and on a specific site or domain.
Wikimedia Commons Image Search
This resource allows you to search for images, many of which are licensed to Creative Commons or are in the public domain.