Visual Resources

ARTstor

This site presents an annotated list of online sources of images. The links are for general image databases that are not specific to the Medieval or Early Modern periods, so it may be most useful to use this site to look for particular images, artists, or dates rather than to browse.

Bridgeman Art Library

The Bridgeman Art Library is an online source for fine art, cultural, and historical images. Though formulated to sell reproductions, the site is useful when browsing for images and related information.

British Library

This is the homepage for the British Library. Access to images is provided via the site’s Online Gallery. The Gallery is organized according to virtual books, online exhibitions, and highlights. All images are provided with brief explanatory texts.

British Museum

This is the homepage for the British Museum. The user can browse or search over 4,000 highlights from the museum’s collection. Each image/object is provided with a brief descriptive and explanatory text.

Cary Collection – Image Database Subject Library

The Cary Collection is a library devoted to the history and practice of printing. The image database provides access to a variety of Medieval manuscripts as well as prints dating from the inception of the printing press to the 20th century. Each image is accompanied by a brief explanatory text.

Enluminures

This French site offers access to more than 80,000 images (e.g. marginalia, initials, scenes) from illuminated Medieval manuscripts. Images can be browsed according to subject, title, author, and type of illumination. The site also offers “visites virtuelles,” which allow students to become familiar with various types of manuscript illumination.

Exeter Cathedral Keystones and Carvings

An illustrated introduction to and explanatory catalogue of all the figurative sculpture that is part of the original interior fabric of Exeter Cathedral, this site also includes an interactive ground plan of the Medieval structure.

Getty – Photo Study Collection

The Photo Study Collection holds two million photographs of Western art, architecture and decorative arts from Antiquity to the Modern period. Though the database provides descriptions for many of these photographs, images are currently available only for the tapestries collection. The database is particularly useful for iconographic or thematic research.

Index of Christian Art  

The Index of Christian Art is the largest existing database of Medieval art, both text and image, from apostolic times to 1400. It is formulated specifically as a resource for iconographic study. Though access to many of the images listed is restricted (due to copyright), the descriptive information is useful.

Koninklijke Bibliotheek – 100 Highlights

This site presents 100 highlights from the library’s extensive collection of books and manuscripts. Though not devoted solely to Medieval and Early Modern imagery, the site includes many objects from these time periods. Of particular relevance are the images listed under the following subjects: “Medieval Manuscripts and Illumination,” “Religious Works,” “Literature”, and “Historical Works.”

Leaves of Gold: Treasures of Manuscript Illumination from Philadelphia Collections (Exhibition)

Created for a 2001 exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art of more than 80 Medieval and Renaissance miniature paintings, this site provides basic information on and some images of Bibles, Books of Hours, Psalters, and liturgical and literary manuscripts. Useful as a survey of different types of illuminated manuscripts from the Medieval and Early Modern periods.

Medieval Bestiary – Animals in the Middle Ages

Created by an independent scholar, this site is devoted to the representation of animals in the Middle Ages. The focus is on Western European manuscripts, particularly bestiaries. This site is useful as a survey of Medieval animal imagery and topics, and includes images, descriptions, and a bibliography.

Metropolitan Museum of Art – Collection Database

The Collection Database of the Metropolitan Museum of Art provides access to over 130,000 artworks and related materials in the museum’s permanent collection.

The University of Manchester Collections

Part of the University of Manchester Library, this site provides access to electronic image collections. The Rylands Medieval Collection (a collection of over 40 Middle English manuscripts) is of particular relevance. Users need to have “Insight” installed on their computers in order to browse the collections.

Visual Resources – Art and Archaeology (Princeton University)

This site presents an annotated list of online sources of images. The links are for general image databases that are not specific to the Medieval or Early Modern periods, so it may be most useful to use this site to look for particular images, artists, or dates rather than to browse.

Web Gallery of Art

The Web Gallery of Art is a virtual museum and searchable database of European painting and sculpture spanning from 1100 to 1850. The site provides dates and comments for the images, as well as brief biographies of the artists. The site is very easy to navigate.