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Database Guides: Artstor

A cross-disciplinary image resource.

Artstor Access and Help

Getting to know ARTstor

  • Images found in ARTstor come from a wide variety of providers including museums, art historians, professional photographers, and artists' estates.

    • Some artists and artists' estates are more restrictive when it comes to distributing the content they control, which is why some searches for popular artists will return zero results.  Content added by the Visual Resources Library attempts to close this gap.

  • The metadata provided for each image can vary greatly in amount and quality.

  • Unfortunately many images lack associated subject terms, so plan your searches accordingly.

  • Be creative with search terms.  Use synonyms and related terms.  Use relevant images you have found to help refine your continued search.

  • Take advantage of the Advanced Search and its capabilities that are tailor-made for ARTstor.

Search Tips

Searches that are too general often return too many images. To refine searches, you can use the Advanced Search option or choose to search Within this search result after an initial basic or advanced search.  For example:

  1. On the Welcome Page, perform a search for Sistine Chapel.
  2. 612 thumbnails are returned (on 9-13-16).
  3. On the results page, a new search box appears.  From this box the user can conduct a brand new search or choose Within this search result from the drop box. 
  4. In this box, type Adam, then select GO.  Now you have fewer thumbnails, but don't forget to click on the "view duplicates and details" icon (overlapping rectangles) below the image to view grouped results.
  5. To explore this search option further, use the back arrow below the Artstor logo to return to the previous page, the original sistine chapel search.
  6. Now try the term sibyl Within this search result.  
  7. Go back and try the following terms, one by one, Within this search result:
  8.  Noah
  9. creation
  10. medallion
  11. Last Judgment
  12. Perugino

Use the Advanced Search option to limit by date and to select Geography and Classification terms from an Artstor list.

Four Easy Tricks to help you search the ARTstor Digital Library (from the ARTstor Blog)