Art history

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Art historyis, briefly, the history of art—or the study of a specific type of objects created in the past.^[1]

Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today, art history examines broader aspects of visualculture, including the various visual and conceptual outcomes related to an ever-evolving definition of art.^[2][3]Art history encompasses the study of objects created by different cultures around the world and throughout history that convey meaning, importance or serve usefulness primarily through visual representations.

As a discipline, art history is distinguished fromart criticism, which is concerned with establishing a relative artistic value for individual works with respect to others of comparable style or sanctioning an entire style or movement; and art theory or "philosophy of art", which is concerned with the fundamental nature of art. One branch of this area of study isaesthetics, which includes investigating the enigma of thesublimeand determining the essence of beauty. Technically, art history is not these things, because the art historian useshistorical methodto answer the questions: How did the artist come to create the work?, Who were the patrons?, Who were their teachers?, Who was the audience?, Who were their disciples?, What historical forces shaped the artist's oeuvre and how did he or she and the creation, in turn, affect the course of artistic, political and social events? It is, however, questionable whether many questions of this kind can be answered satisfactorily without also considering basic questions about the nature of art. The current disciplinary gap between art history and the philosophy of art (aesthetics) often hinders this inquiry.^[4]

History of art
Periods and movements Prehistoric Ancient Medieval Pre-Romanesque Romanesque Gothic Renaissance Mannerism Baroque Rococo Neoclassicism Revivalism Romanticism Realism Pre-Raphaelites Modern Impressionism Symbolism Decorative Post-Impressionism Art Nouveau Fauvism Expressionism Cubism Contemporary Postmodern Conceptualism Pop Minimalism
Regions Art of the Middle East Mesopotamian Egyptian Hittite Persian Arabian South Arabian Phoenician Ottoman Art of Central Asia Art of East Asia Chinese Hong Kong Taiwan Japanese Korean Tibetan Art of South Asia Indian Bhutanese Newar Art of Southeast Asia Indonesian Filipino Vietnamese Thai Myanmar Malaysian Cambodian Khmer Lao Singaporean Bruneian Art of Europe Minoan Cycladic Etruscan Dacian Celtic Scythian Greek Hellenistic Iberian Roman Byzantine Anglo-Saxon Ottonian Viking Rus Art of Africa Igbo Yoruba Benin Kuba Luba Art of the Americas Pre-Columbian Maya Muisca Inuit Art of Oceania Australian Cook Islands Hawaiian Papuan
Religions Buddhist Christian Catholic Protestant Hindu Islamic Jain Manichaean Sikh Taoist Vodou Vodun
Techniques Sculpture Painting Pottery Calligraphy Architecture Photography Graphic arts Digital art
Types Abstract Art history Art movement List Figurative Funerary Naïve Narrative Naturalist
v t e

Art history is an interdisciplinary practice that analyzes the various factors—cultural, political, religious, economic or artistic—which contribute to visual appearance of a work of art.

Art historians employ a number ofmethodsin their research into theontologyand history of objects.

Art historians often examine work in the context of its time. At best, this is done in a manner which respects its creator's motivations and imperatives; with consideration of the desires and prejudices of its patrons and sponsors; with a comparative analysis of themes and approaches of the creator's colleagues and teachers; and with consideration of iconography andsymbolism. In short, this approach examines the work of art in the context of the world within which it was created.

Art historians also often examine work through an analysis of form; that is, the creator's use ofline,shape,color,textureand composition. This approach examines how the artist uses atwo-dimensionalpicture plane or thethree dimensionsofsculpturalorarchitecturalspace to create their art. The way these individual elements are employed results inrepresentationalornon-representationalart. Is the artist imitating an object or can the image be found in nature? If so, it is representational. The closer the art hews to perfect imitation, the more the art isrealistic. Is the artist not imitating, but instead relying on symbolism or in an important way striving to capture nature's essence, rather than copy it directly? If so the art is non-representational—also calledabstract. Realism and abstraction exist on a continuum.Impressionismis an example of a representational style that was not directly imitative, but strove to create an "impression" of nature. If the work is not representational and is an expression of the artist's feelings, longings and aspirations or is a search for ideals of beauty and form, the work is non-representational or a work ofexpressionism.

Aniconographicalanalysis is one which focuses on particular design elements of an object. Through a close reading of such elements, it is possible to trace their lineage, and with it draw conclusions regarding the origins and trajectory of thesemotifs. In turn, it is possible to make any number of observations regarding the social, cultural, economic and aesthetic values of those responsible for producing the object.

Many art historians usecritical theoryto frame their inquiries into objects. Theory is most often used when dealing with more recent objects, those from the late 19th century onward. Critical theory in art history is often borrowed fromliterary scholarsand it involves the application of a non-artistic analytical framework to the study of art objects.Feminist,Marxist,critical race,queerandpostcolonialtheories are all well established in the discipline. As in literary studies, there is an interest among scholars in nature and the environment, but the direction that this will take in the discipline has yet to be determined.

The earliest surviving writing on art that can be classified as art history are the passages inPliny the Elder'sNatural History(c. AD 77–79), concerning the development ofGreek sculpture and painting.^[5]From them it is possible to trace the ideas ofXenokrates of Sicyon(c. 280 BC), a Greek sculptor who was perhaps the first art historian.^[6]Pliny's work, while mainly anencyclopaediaof the sciences, has thus been influential from theRenaissanceonwards. (Passages about techniques used by the painterApellesc. (332–329 BC), have been especially well-known.) Similar, though independent, developments occurred in the 6th century China, where a canon of worthy artists was established by writers in the scholar-official class. These writers, being necessarily proficient in calligraphy, were artists themselves. The artists are described in theSix Principles of Paintingformulated byXie He.^[7]

While personal reminiscences of art and artists have long been written and read (seeLorenzo GhibertiCommentarii, for the best early example),^[8]it was Giorgio Vasari, the Tuscan painter, sculptor and author of theLives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, who wrote the first truehistoryof art.^[9]He emphasized art's progression and development, which was a milestone in this field. His was a personal and a historical account, featuring biographies of individual Italian artists, many of whom were his contemporaries and personal acquaintances. The most renowned of these wasMichelangelo.

Vasari's ideas about art were enormously influential, and served as a model for many, including in the north of EuropeKarel van Mander'sSchilder-boeckandJoachim von Sandrart'sTeutsche Akademie.^{[citation needed]}Vasari's approach held sway until the 18th century, when criticism was leveled at his biographical account of history.^{[citation needed]}

Scholars such asJohann Joachim Winckelmann(1717–1768) criticized Vasari's "cult" of artistic personality, and they argued that the real emphasis in the study of art should be the views of the learned beholder and not the viewpoint of the artist. Winckelmann's writings thus were the beginnings of art criticism. His two most notable works that introduced the concept of art criticism wereGedanken über die Nachahmung der griechischen Werke in der Malerei und Bildhauerkunst, published in 1755, shortly before he left for Rome (Fuselipublished an English translation in 1765 under the titleReflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks), andGeschichte der Kunst des Altertums(History of Art in Antiquity), published in 1764 (this is the first occurrence of the phrase 'history of art' in the title of a book).^[10]Winckelmann critiqued the artistic excesses ofBaroqueandRococoforms, and was instrumental in reforming taste in favor of the more soberNeoclassicism.Jacob Burckhardt(1818–1897), one of the founders of art history, noted that Winckelmann was 'the first to distinguish between the periods of ancient art and to link the history of style with world history'. From Winckelmann until the mid-20th century, the field of art history was dominated by German-speaking academics. Winckelmann's work thus marked the entry of art history into the high-philosophical discourse of German culture.

Winckelmann was read avidly byJohann Wolfgang von GoetheandFriedrich Schiller, both of whom began to write on the history of art, and his account of theLaocoön groupoccasioned a response byLessing. The emergence of art as a major subject of philosophical speculation was solidified by the appearance ofImmanuel Kant'sCritique of Judgmentin 1790, and was furthered byHegel'sLectures on Aesthetics. Hegel's philosophy served as the direct inspiration forKarl Schnaase's work. Schnaase'sNiederländische Briefeestablished the theoretical foundations for art history as an autonomous discipline, and hisGeschichte der bildenden Künste, one of the first historical surveys of the history of art from antiquity to the Renaissance, facilitated the teaching of art history in German-speaking universities. Schnaase's survey was published contemporaneously with a similar work byFranz Theodor Kugler.

Heinrich Wölfflin(1864–1945), who studied under Burckhardt in Basel, is the "father" of modern art history. Wölfflin taught at the universities of Berlin, Basel, Munich, and Zurich. A number of students went on to distinguished careers in art history, includingJakob RosenbergandFrida Schottmüller[de]. He introduced a scientific approach to the history of art, focusing on three concepts. Firstly, he attempted to study art using psychology, particularly by applying the work ofWilhelm Wundt. He argued, among other things, that art and architecture are good if they resemble the human body. For example, houses were good if theirfaçadeslooked like faces. Secondly, he introduced the idea of studying art through comparison. By comparing individual paintings to each other, he was able to make distinctions of style. His bookRenaissanceandBaroquedeveloped this idea, and was the first to show how these stylistic periods differed from one another. In contrast toGiorgio Vasari, Wölfflin was uninterested in the biographies of artists. In fact he proposed the creation of an "art history without names." Finally, he studied art based on ideas ofnationhood. He was particularly interested in whether there was an inherently "Italian" and an inherently "German" style. This last interest was most fully articulated in his monograph on the German artistAlbrecht Dürer.

Contemporaneous with Wölfflin's career, a major school of art-historical thought developed at theUniversity of Vienna. The first generation of the Vienna School was dominated byAlois RieglandFranz Wickhoff, both students ofMoritz Thausing, and was characterized by a tendency to reassess neglected or disparaged periods in the history of art. Riegl and Wickhoff both wrote extensively on the art oflate antiquity, which before them had been considered as a period of decline from the classical ideal. Riegl also contributed to the revaluation of the Baroque.

The next generation of professors at Vienna includedMax Dvořák,Julius von Schlosser, Hans Tietze, Karl Maria Swoboda, andJosef Strzygowski. A number of the most important twentieth-century art historians, includingErnst Gombrich, received their degrees at Vienna at this time. The term "Second Vienna School" (or "New Vienna School") usually refers to the following generation of Viennese scholars, includingHans Sedlmayr, Otto Pächt, and Guido Kaschnitz von Weinberg. These scholars began in the 1930s to return to the work of the first generation, particularly to Riegl and his concept ofKunstwollen, and attempted to develop it into a full-blown art-historical methodology. Sedlmayr, in particular, rejected the minute study of iconography, patronage, and other approaches grounded in historical context, preferring instead to concentrate on the aesthetic qualities of a work of art. As a result, the Second Vienna School gained a reputation for unrestrained and irresponsibleformalism, and was furthermore colored by Sedlmayr's overt racism and membership in the Nazi party. This latter tendency was, however, by no means shared by all members of the school; Pächt, for example, was himself Jewish, and was forced to leave Vienna in the 1930s.

Our 21st-century understanding of the symbolic content of art comes from a group of scholars who gathered inHamburgin the 1920s. The most prominent among them wereErwin Panofsky,Aby Warburg,Fritz SaxlandGertrud Bing. Together they developed much of the vocabulary that continues to be used in the 21st century by art historians. "Iconography"—with roots meaning "symbols from writing" refers to subject matter of art derived from written sources—especially scripture and mythology. "Iconology" is a broader term that referred to all symbolism, whether derived from a specific text or not. Today art historians sometimes use these terms interchangeably.

Panofsky, in his early work, also developed the theories of Riegl, but became eventually more preoccupied with iconography, and in particular with the transmission of themes related to classical antiquity in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. In this respect his interests coincided with those of Warburg, the son of a wealthy family who had assembled a library in Hamburg, devoted to the study of the classical tradition in later art and culture. Under Saxl's auspices, this library was developed into a research institute, affiliated with theUniversity of Hamburg, where Panofsky taught.

Warburg died in 1929, and in the 1930s Saxl and Panofsky, both Jewish, were forced to leave Hamburg. Saxl settled in London, bringing Warburg's library with him and establishing theWarburg Institute. Panofsky settled in Princeton at theInstitute for Advanced Study. In this respect they were part of an extraordinary influx of German art historians into the English-speaking academy in the 1930s. These scholars were largely responsible for establishing art history as a legitimate field of study in the English-speaking world, and the influence of Panofsky's methodology, in particular, determined the course of American art history for a generation.

Heinrich Wölfflin was not the only scholar to invoke psychological theories in the study of art. An unexpected turn in the history of art criticism came in 1910 when psychoanalystSigmund Freudpublished a book on the artistLeonardo da Vinci, in which he used Leonardo's paintings to interrogate the artist'spsycheand sexual orientation. Freud inferred from his analysis that Leonardo was probablyhomosexual. In 1914 Freud published a psychoanalytical interpretation of Michelangelo'sMoses(Der Moses des Michelangelo).^[11]He published this work shortly after reading Vasari'sLives. For unknown reasons, he originally published the article anonymously.

Though the use of posthumous material to perform psychoanalysis is controversial among art historians, especially as the sexual mores of Michelangelo's and Leonardo's time and Freud's are different, it is often attempted.

Carl Jungalso applied psychoanalytic theory to art. Jung was a Swisspsychiatrist, an influential thinker, and founder ofanalytical psychology. Jung's approach to psychology emphasized understanding thepsychethrough exploring the worlds ofdreams, art,mythology, worldreligionandphilosophy. Much of his life's work was spent exploring Eastern and Western philosophy,alchemy,astrology,sociology, as well asliteratureand the arts. His most notable contributions include his concept of the psychologicalarchetype, thecollective unconscious, and his theory ofsynchronicity. Jung believed that many experiences perceived ascoincidencewere not merely due to chance but, instead, suggested the manifestation of parallel events or circumstances reflecting this governing dynamic.^[12]He argued that acollective unconsciousand archetypal imagery were detectable in art. His ideas were particularly popular among AmericanAbstract expressionistsin the 1940s and 1950s.^[13]His work inspired thesurrealistconcept of drawing imagery from dreams and the unconscious.

Jung emphasized the importance of balance and harmony. He cautioned that modern humans rely too heavily on science and logic and would benefit from integrating spirituality and appreciation of the unconscious realm. His work not only triggered analytical work by art historians but became an integral part of art-making.Jackson Pollock, for example, famously created a series of drawings to accompany his sessions with his Jungian analyst, Joseph Henderson. Henderson, who later published the drawings in a text devoted to Pollock's sessions, realized how powerful the drawings were as a therapeutic tool.^[14]

The legacy of psychoanalysis and analytical psychology in art history has been profound, and extends beyond Freud and Jung. The prominent feminist art historian Griselda Pollock, for example, draws upon psychoanalysis both in her reading into contemporary art and in her rereading of modernist art. WithGriselda Pollock's reading of French feminist psychoanalysis and in particular the writings ofJulia KristevaandBracha L. Ettinger, as with Rosalind Krauss's readings ofJacques LacanandJean-François Lyotardand Catherine de Zegher's curatorial rereading of art,Feminist theorywritten in the fields ofFrench feminismand Psychoanalysis has strongly informed the reframing of both men and women artists in art history.

During the mid-20th century, art historians embracedsocial historyby using critical approaches. The goal was to show how art interacts with power structures in society. One such critical approach was Marxism. Marxist art history attempted to show how art was tied to specific classes, how images contain information about the economy, and how images can make the status quo seem natural (ideology).[1]

Marcel Duchamp and theDadaMovement jump-started the anti-art style. German artists, upset by the World War in 1914, wanted to create artworks which were nonconforming and aimed to destroy traditional art styles.[2]These two movements helped other artists to create pieces that were not viewed as traditional art. Some examples of styles that branched off the anti-art movement would be Neo-Dadaism, Surrealism, and Constructivism. These styles and artists did not want to surrender to traditional ways of art. This way of thinking provoked political movements such as the Russian Revolution and the communist ideals.^[15]

ArtistIsaak Brodsky's work of artShock Workers from Dnieprostroiin 1932 shows his political involvement within art. This piece of art can be analysed to show the internal troubles Soviet Russia was experiencing at the time. Perhaps the best-known Marxist wasClement Greenberg, who came to prominence during the late 1930s with his essay "Avant-Garde and Kitsch".^[16]In the essay Greenberg claimed that theavant-gardearose in order to defendaestheticstandards from the decline of taste involved inconsumer society, and seeing kitsch and art as opposites. Greenberg further claimed that avant-garde andModernistart was a means to resist the leveling of culture produced bycapitalist propaganda. Greenberg appropriated the German word 'kitsch' to describe this consumerism, although itsconnotationshave since changed to a more affirmative notion of leftover materials of capitalist culture. Greenberg now is well known for examining and criticizing the formal properties of modern art.[3]

Meyer Schapirois one of the best-remembered Marxist art historians of the mid-20th century. After his graduation from Columbia University in 1924, he returned to his alma mater to teach Byzantine, Early Christian, and medieval art along with art-historical theory.[4]Although he wrote about numerous time periods and themes in art, he is best remembered for his commentary on sculpture from the lateMiddle Agesand early Renaissance.

Arnold Hauserwrote the first Marxist survey of Western Art, entitledThe Social History of Art. He attempted to show how class consciousness was reflected in major art periods. The book was controversial when published in 1951 because of its generalizations about entire eras, a strategy now called "vulgar Marxism".[5]

Marxist art history was refined by scholars such asT. J. Clark,Otto Karl Werckmeister[de], David Kunzle,Theodor W. Adorno, andMax Horkheimer. T. J. Clark was the first art historian writing from a Marxist perspective to abandonvulgar Marxism. He wrote Marxist art histories of severalimpressionistandrealistartists, includingGustave CourbetandÉdouard Manet. These books focused closely on the political and economic climates in which the art was created.^[17]

Linda Nochlin's essay "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" helped to ignite feminist art history during the 1970s and remains one of the most widely read essays about female artists. This was then followed by a 1972College Art AssociationPanel, chaired by Nochlin, entitled "Eroticism and the Image of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Art". Within a decade, scores of papers, articles, and essays sustained a growing momentum, fueled by theSecond-wave feminist movement, of critical discourse surrounding women's interactions with the arts as both artists and subjects. In her pioneering essay, Nochlin applies a feminist critical framework to show systematic exclusion of women from art training, arguing that exclusion from practicing art as well as the canonical history of art was the consequence of cultural conditions which curtailed and restricted women from art producing fields.^[18]The few who did succeed were treated as anomalies and did not provide a model for subsequent success.Griselda Pollockis another prominent feminist art historian, whose use of psychoanalytic theory is described above.

While feminist art history can focus on any time period and location, much attention has been given to the Modern era. Some of this scholarship centers on thefeminist art movement, which referred specifically to the experience of women. Often, feminist art history offers a critical "re-reading" of the Western art canon, such asCarol Duncan's re-interpretation ofLes Demoiselles d'Avignon. Two pioneers of the field areMary GarrardandNorma Broude. Their anthologiesFeminism and Art History: Questioning the Litany,The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History, andReclaiming Feminist Agency: Feminist Art History After Postmodernismare substantial efforts to bring feminist perspectives into the discourse of art history. The pair also co-founded the Feminist Art History Conference.^[19]

As opposed to iconography which seeks to identify meaning,semioticsis concerned with how meaning is created.Roland Barthes's connoted and denoted meanings are paramount to this examination. In any particular work of art, an interpretation depends on the identification of denoted meaning^[20]—the recognition of a visual sign, and the connoted meaning^[21]—the instant cultural associations that come with recognition. The main concern of the semiotic art historian is to come up with ways to navigate and interpret connoted meaning.^[22]

Semiotic art history seeks to uncover the codified meaning or meanings in an aesthetic object by examining its connectedness to acollective consciousness.^[23]Art historians do not commonly commit to any one particular brand of semiotics but rather construct an amalgamated version which they incorporate into their collection of analytical tools. For example,Meyer SchapiroborrowedSaussure's differential meaning in effort to read signs as they exist within a system.^[24]According to Schapiro, to understand the meaning of frontality in a specific pictorial context, it must be differentiated from, or viewed in relation to, alternate possibilities such as aprofile, or athree-quarter view. Schapiro combined this method with the work ofCharles Sanders Peircewhose object, sign, and interpretant provided a structure for his approach. Alex Potts demonstrates the application of Peirce's concepts to visual representation by examining them in relation to theMona Lisa. By seeing theMona Lisa, for example, as something beyond its materiality is to identify it as a sign. It is then recognized as referring to an object outside of itself, a woman, orMona Lisa. The image does not seem to denote religious meaning and can therefore be assumed to be a portrait. This interpretation leads to a chain of possible interpretations: who was the sitter in relation toLeonardo da Vinci? What significance did she have to him? Or, maybe she is an icon for all of womankind. This chain of interpretation, or "unlimited semiosis" is endless; the art historian's job is to place boundaries on possible interpretations as much as it is to reveal new possibilities.^[25]

Semiotics operates under the theory that an image can only be understood from the viewer's perspective. The artist is supplanted by the viewer as the purveyor of meaning, even to the extent that an interpretation is still valid regardless of whether the creator had intended it.^[25]Rosalind Kraussespoused this concept in her essay "In the Name of Picasso." She denounced the artist's monopoly on meaning and insisted that meaning can only be derived after the work has been removed from its historical and social context.Mieke Balargued similarly that meaning does not even exist until the image is observed by the viewer. It is only after acknowledging this that meaning can become opened up to other possibilities such as feminism or psychoanalysis.^[26]

Aspects of the subject which have come to the fore in recent decades include interest in the patronage and consumption of art, including the economics of the art market, the role of collectors, the intentions and aspirations of those commissioning works, and the reactions of contemporary and later viewers and owners.Museum studies, including the history of museum collecting and display, is now a specialized field of study, as is the history of collecting.

Scientific advances have made possible much more accurate investigation of the materials and techniques used to create works, especiallyinfra-redandx-rayphotographic techniques which have allowed many underdrawings of paintings to be seen again, including figures that had been removed from the piece. Proper analysis ofpigmentsused in paint is now possible, which has upset many attributions.Dendrochronologyforpanel paintingsandradio-carbon datingfor old objects in organic materials have allowed scientific methods of dating objects to confirm or upset dates derived from stylistic analysis or documentary evidence. The development of good color photography, now held digitally and available on the internet or by other means, has transformed the study of many types of art, especially those covering objects existing in large numbers which are widely dispersed among collections, such asilluminated manuscriptsandPersian miniatures, and many types of archaeological artworks.

Concurrent to those technological advances, art historians have shown increasing interest in new theoretical approaches to the nature of artworks as objects.Thing theory,actor–network theory, andobject-oriented ontologyhave played an increasing role in art historical literature.

The making of art, the academic history of art, and the history of art museums are closely intertwined with the rise of nationalism. Art created in the modern era, in fact, has often been an attempt to generate feelings ofnational superiorityorlove of one's country.Russian artis an especially good example of this, as theRussian avant-gardeand laterSoviet artwere attempts to define that country's identity.

Napoleon Bonapartewas also well known for commissioning works that emphasized the strength of France with him as ruler.

WesternRomanticismprovided a new appreciation for one's home country, or new home country.Caspar David Friedrich's,Monk by the Sea(1808 or 1810) sets a sublime scene representing the overwhelming beauty and strength of the German shoreline at the Baltic Sea. In the infancy of the American colonies, the people believed it was their destiny to explore the Western, "untamed", wilderness. Artists who had been training at theHudson River Schoolin New York, took on the task of presenting the unknown land as both picturesque and sublime.

Most art historians working today identify their specialty as the art of a particular culture, time period, or movement like, 19th-century German or contemporary Chinese art. A focus on nationhood has deep roots in the discipline. Indeed,Vasari'sLives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architectsis an attempt to show the superiority of Florentine artistic culture, andHeinrich Wölfflin's writings (especially his monograph onAlbrecht Dürer) attempt to distinguish Italian from German styles of art.

Many of the largest and most well-funded art museums of the world, such as theLouvre, theVictoria and Albert Museum, and theNational Gallery of Artin Washington are state-owned. Most countries, indeed, have anational gallery, with an explicit mission of preserving the cultural patrimony owned by the government—regardless of what cultures created the art—and an often implicit mission to bolster that country's owncultural heritage. The National Gallery of Art thus showcases art made in theUnited States, but also owns objects from across the world.

The discipline of art history is traditionally divided into specializations or concentrations based on eras and regions, with further sub-division based on media.

Western art for example, can be divided into the followingperiods: Ancient Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical, Romanticism, Modern, and Contemporary.

In the United States, the most important art history organization is theCollege Art Association.^[27]It organizes an annual conference and publishes theArt BulletinandArt Journal. Similar organizations exist in other parts of the world, as well as for specializations, such asarchitectural historyand Renaissance art history. In the UK, for example, theAssociation of Art Historiansis the premiere organization, and it publishes a journal titledArt History.

• Bildwissenschaft
• Dictionary of Art Historians, a database of notable art historians maintained byDuke University
• Fine art
• Rock art
• Theosophy and visual arts

Sources

• Nelson, Robert S.; Shiff, Richard, eds. (2003).Critical Terms for Art History(2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.ISBN978-0226571683.

Listed by date

• Wölfflin, H.(1915, trans. 1932).Principles of Art History; the problem of the development of style in later art. [New York]: Dover Publications.
• Hauser, A. (1959).The philosophy of art history. New York: Knopf.
• Arntzen, E., & Rainwater, R. (1980).Guide to the literature of art history. Chicago: American Library Association.
• Holly, M. A. (1984).Panofsky and the foundations of art history. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.
• Johnson, W. M. (1988).Art history: its use and abuse. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
• Carrier, D. (1991).Principles of art history writing. University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University Press.
• Kemal, Salim, and Ivan Gaskell (1991).The Language of Art History. Cambridge University Press.ISBN0-521-44598-1
• Fitzpatrick, Virginia L. N. V. D. (1992).Art History: A Contextual Inquiry Course. Point of view series. Reston, Virginia: National Art Education Association.ISBN978-0937652596
• Minor, Vernon Hyde. (1994).Critical Theory of Art History. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
• Adams, L. (1996).The methodologies of art: an introduction. New York: IconEditions.
• Frazier, N. (1999).The Penguin concise dictionary of art history. New York: Penguin Reference.
• Pollock, G., (1999).Differencing the Canon. Routledge.ISBN0-415-06700-6
• Harrison, Charles, Paul Wood, and Jason Gaiger. (2000).Art in Theory 1648–1815: An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
• Minor, Vernon Hyde. (2001).Art history's history. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
• Robinson, Hilary. (2001).Feminism – Art – Theory: An Anthology, 1968–2000. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell.
• Clark, T. J.(2001).Farewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Buchloh, Benjamin. (2001).Neo-Avantgarde and Culture Industry. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
• Mansfield, Elizabeth (2002).Art History and Its Institutions: Foundations of a Discipline. Routledge.ISBN0-415-22868-9
• Murray, Chris. (2003).Key Writers on Art. 2 vols, Routledge Key Guides. London: Routledge.
• Harrison, Charles, and Paul Wood. (2003).Art in Theory, 1900–2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas. 2nd ed. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell.
• Shiner, Larry. (2003).The Invention of Art: A Cultural History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.ISBN978-0-226-75342-3
• Pollock, Griselda (ed.) (2006).Psychoanalysis and the Image. Oxford: Blackwell.ISBN1-4051-3461-5
• Emison, Patricia (2008).The Shaping of Art History. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.ISBN978-0-271-03306-8
• Charlene Spretnak(2014),The Spiritual Dynamic in Modern Art : Art History Reconsidered, 1800 to the Present.
• Gauvin Alexander Bailey(2014)The Spiritual Rococo: Décor and Divinity from the Salons of Paris to the Missions of Patagonia. Farnham: Ashgate.
• Kleiner, F. S. (2018).Gardner's Art Through the Ages: A Global History.16th edition. Boston: Cengage Learning.ISBN978-1337630702
• John-Paul Stonard (2021)Creation. Art Since the Beginning. London and New York: BloomsburyISBN978-1408879689

• Media related toArt historyat Wikimedia Commons
• Art historyat Wikibooks
• Quotations related toArt historyat Wikiquote
• Art History Resources on the Web, in-depth directory of web links, divided by period