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ART 104: Art History: Prehistory to Renaissance

A guide to recommended resources for students in ART 104.

The Information Literacy Core Academic Skill at NECC

Information literacy icon

Information literacy is a set of skills & dispositions regarding where & how to find information, evaluate information for relevance, quality, & bias, & how to use information legally & ethically.

Information Literacy: Students will learn to identify their information needs, locate, evaluate, and appropriately integrate information to accomplish a specific purpose. Students will demonstrate the ability to use current technology and other research resources to find and effectively communicate information.

This course will fulfill your requirement to take an information literacy-intensive course. This course will demonstrate that you have the above skills and can use information ethically, citing your sources and avoiding plagiarism.

This guide will help you find and cite appropriate sources for academic research in Art History.

Getting Started with Research in Art History

This course introduces the history of painting, sculpture, and architecture in Western and other world cultures. The periods to be covered range from Prehistoric times to 1500 and include the Stone Age, ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, the Byzantine and Medieval worlds, and the early Renaissance.

Most art history books are not dedicated to a single work. When researching art, remember to look for additional information about:

  • artist
  • location such as a city or country
  • style, i.e., Mannerist or Deco
  • period, i.e., Renaissance or Roman
  • movement, i.e., Dada, Bauhaus, or Secession
  • material or technique

Searching tips:

If you know the artist's name, use a keyword or subject search in the library catalog for books under these names. Once you have a book in hand, refer to its index or table of contents to determine whether or not your artwork is mentioned.

If the artist is unknown, try searching under period, style, location, or movement.

Art Images

Paintings of a herd of bison with two horses and a wild boar

Cave Art: Altamira. Paintings of a herd of bison with two horses and a wild boar, on the Polychrome Ceiling in the Great Hall of the Cave of Altamira, near Santander, Spain, c15,000-12,000 B.C.

 Cave Art: Altamira. [Photograph]. Retrieved from Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest.
https://quest.eb.com/search/140_1806281/1/140_1806281/cite

Aztec Stone Drum

Mexico, Aztec civilization, Teponatzli stone drum from Mexico Valley Aztec civilization, Mexico, 11th-16th century. Teponatzli stone drum. From Mexico Valley.

Mexico, Aztec civilization, Teponatzli stone drum from Mexico Valley. [Photograph]. Retrieved from Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest.
https://quest.eb.com/search/126_528483/1/126_528483/cite

Army of the First Emperor. Qin Tomb: terra cotta warriors from the tomb of Qin Shihuang Ti (259 - 210 BC). Xian, Shaanxi Province, China.

Army of the First Emperor. Terra cotta warriors of Qin Tomb, China.. [Photo]. Retrieved from Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest.
https://quest.eb.com/search/300_248995/1/300_248995/cite

To cite this LibGuide use the following templates:

APA: Northern Essex Community College Library. (Date updated). Title of page. Title of LibGuide. URL

MLA: Northern Essex Community College Library. "Title of Page." Title of LibGuide, Date updated, URL.