Stanford University

Art & Architecture Library

 

 

Bibliographers:

Alex Ross: alexr@leland.stanford.edu

Peter Blank: ppb@leland.stanford.edu

Address: Art & Architecture Library, 102 Cummings Art Building, Stanford, CA 94305-2018

I. Programmatic Information

 

The Art & Architecture Library collection (hereinafter "Art Library") primarily supports work in the Art Department which offers over one hundred courses in all areas of art history except Islamic, Pre-Columbian, African, and Oceanic. Courses in these areas are occasionally taught by visiting faculty.

In addition to the purchase of material to support Art Department courses in art history and studio art, the Art Library serves the following departments and programs:

Classics Department - several courses in the history of Greek and Roman architecture. 

Drama Department - several courses in costume design and history.

English Department - various courses concerned more or less deeply with the visual arts, e.g., a seminar on the relationship of literature and painting in America, a course on the Enlightenment conception of prison, a seminar on paleography.

Humanities Special Programs - various courses that treat aspects of the visual arts e.g., "The Arts and the Humanities," "Medieval Culture."

Graduate Program in Design - working jointly, the Departments of Art and Mechanical Engineering offer graduate degrees (M.F.A., M.S., A.M.) in product and visual design; the Art Library cooperates with the Engineering Library in providing specialized materials to support this program.

Stanford University Museum of Art - the Art Library actively supports the curatorial and educational mission of the Museum of Art and its curatorial staff.

There are also faculty and graduate students working in departments other than Art whose research interests are in the field of art history and are represented in the Art Library's collecting policy.

 

II. Coordination and Cooperative Information

 

Ongoing communication is maintained with other bibliographers and with colleagues at Berkeley (particularly the Art/Classics Graduate Service and the Environment Design Library) so there is no unnecessary duplication of materials, and so that Art Library clientele can be referred to other collections when necessary.

Specific areas of coordination with other SUL bibliographers are: 

1. Although most material on the history of printing and the book arts in general goes to Special Collections, the following is collected by the Art Library: histories of book illustration and manuscript illumination; facsimiles of illuminated manuscripts (although catalogues of collections of illuminated manuscripts go to Special Collections); bibliographies of book illustration; histories of the graphic arts; studies of individual graphic artists, illustrators; illustration of early printed books; nineteenth century illustration in books; twentieth century book illustration. 

2. Since much of the material that is excavated in the investigation of ancient sites--e.g. potsherds, fragments of sculpture, jewelry, coins, seals, architectural remains--is of interest mainly to art historians, a great deal of published work on the world's archaeological sites will be in the Art Library. However, publications concerning classical archaeological sites whose primary purpose is not to analyze or catalog art or architectural remains, but rather to shed light on contemporaneous history, religion, language, literature, etc., will be of interest primarily to historians and classicists and will be selected by the Classics Bibliographer for Green Library. The type of excavation report or analysis in which archaeological data is used to advance hypotheses and draw conclusions about the social, economic, and demographic history of "early man" will be of interest primarily to anthropologists and historians and will be selected by the Anthropology and History bibliographers for Green.  

3. Material on art education is selected by the Education Bibliographer and shelved in Cubberley. 

4. The art bibliographers participate in approval plans for U.S., British, Italian, French and German publications. 

 

III. Subject and Language Modifiers

 

Geographical: The entire world, but primarily Europe, the U.S. and the Far East.

Chronological: From the beginnings of art in the Paleolithic Period to the present.

Language: Materials in Western European languages or Chinese and Japanese are most often purchased by the Art Library, but items in other languages are occasionally acquired to fill special needs. English translations of important works are purchased.

 

IV. Description of Material Collected

 

Types of Material and Format: 

1. Surveys of the history of one or more of the visual arts of certain geographical areas and/or chronological periods. 

2. Catalogs of works of art and/or architectural monuments: artists' oeuvre catalogs; museum and private collection catalogs; museum and gallery exhibition catalogs; auction catalogs; art dealer catalogs; inventories of architectural monuments or works of art; art and/or architecture oriented guidebooks; surveys of the works of certain schools of artists or architects; catalogs of architect's studies and plans. 

3. Biographies of artists or architects. 

4. Historical and/or analytical treatments of single works of art or architectural monuments. 

5. Studies that use the evidence contained in the visual art of a place and/or period to draw conclusions about contemporaneous sociology, economics, politics, etc. These works are shelved in the Art Library, rather than STK, only if the primary focus is on the art itself.

6. Reports of the excavation of certain archaeological sites. 

7. Critical editions of the writing of artists, art or architectural historians, aestheticians, or of documents important to the history of art. 

8. Works on iconography. 

9. Important works on urban design.

10. Works on art historical methodology or art historiography. 

11. Important works on art theory and aesthetics.

12. Certain manuals of design or studio practice.

13. Non-traditional media: it is not uncommon for contemporary publications to now include videotape, microfiche, audio tape, or compact disc materials along with a text component. In addition, separate compact discs focusing on museum or artists collections are now being published.

14. Monographs (single or in series), periodicals, periodical indexes and abstracts, Festschriften, dissertations, conference proceedings, and bibliographies are collected. Hard copy is preferred.

 

Unbound study photographs of works of art are generally not collected by the Art Library, nor are original works of art. The purchase of slides is left to the Art Department's Slide Collection and to the Media Center of Meyer Library.

Publication Date: While emphasis is given the acquisition of current titles, the catalogs of about thirty antiquarian art book dealers and the several reprinters who specialize in art history are regularly checked for desiderata that will fill gaps in the present collection. Approximately 20% of the annual acquisitions budget is spent on retrospective material.

 

V. Conspectus of Field

 

Description of collecting levels:

5 = Intensive level - All available significant works are collected; the aim is exhaustiveness.

4 = Advanced research level - Supports doctoral and post-doctoral research with a high degree of adequacy. It includes the major published source materials required for dissertations and independent research, all important reference works and a wide selection of specialized monographs and other secondary literature as well as an extensive collection of journals. In addition to printed, microform, and online material, it may include manuscripts and other special materials, if appropriate.

3 = Study level - Intended to support undergraduate or graduate course work, or sustained independent study, i.e., which is adequate to maintain knowledge of a subject required for limited or generalized purposes of less than research intensity. It includes a wide range of basic monographs, complete collections of the works of important writers, selections from the works of secondary writers, a selection of representative journals, and the reference tools and fundamental bibliographical apparatus pertaining to the subject.

1, 2 = Basic levels - Describe a highly selective collection, including introductory, background and fundamental material and basic reference works, that serve to introduce and define the subject and to indicate the varieties of information available elsewhere. Can include major dictionaries and encyclopedias, selected editions of important works, historical surveys, important bibliographies, and a few major periodicals.

(In each pair of numbers, separated by a slash, that corresponds to a collecting area, the first number represents the present state of the collection in that area and the second indicates the current collecting level.) 

 

Letter symbols that often accompany the collecting levels should be interpreted as follows:

 

Y = Vernacular collections (i.e., materials in the language of the area being collected).

F = Materials in selected foreign languages.

W = Materials in all languages.

 

VISUAL ARTS IN GENERAL

 SPECIAL MUSEUMS, GALLERIES, ETC.
United States 4/4 N510-860
Non-U.S. American Cities 3/3 N908-980
Europe 4/4 N1010-3690
India 2/2F N3720-3730
Japan 4/4W N3735
Other Asian Countries 4/4W N3750
Africa 2/2 N3800-3885
Australia, New Zealand 2/2 N3910-3980

PREHISTORIC AND PRIMITIVE ART
Prehistoric   2/2F N5310
Primitive Art: General Works 2/3 N5311
American Indian 2/2 F1201-3822
Sub-Sahara Africa 2/2 N7380
Oceania 1/2 N7410-7411

ANCIENT ART
Egypt 3/3F N5350
Ancient Near East 3/3F N5370-5560
Aegean 3/3F N5660
Etruscan 3/3F N5750-5751
Greek and Roman 4/4F N5603-5896

 

MEDIEVAL ART
Early Christian 4/4F N7832-7840
Early Medieval 4/4F N5930-6245
Byzantine 4/4F N6250
Islamic 2/2 N6260-6271
Romanesque 4/4F N6280
Gothic 4/4F N6310

RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE ART
Great Britain 4/4 N6761-6796
Austria/Hungary 3/3F 6822-N6801
France 3/4F N6841-6853
Germany 4/4F N6861-6866
Italy 4/4F N6904-6910
Netherlands 4/4F N6911-6925
Russia 3/2Y N6981-6973
Scandinavia 1/1 N7001-7093
Spain, Portugal 3/3F N7101-7153
Switzerland 3/3F N7141-7153
Eastern Europe 3/3F N175-7253

 

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ART
United States, Canada 4/4F N6501-6549
Latin America 3/2Y N6550-6739
Great Britain 4/4 N6761-6796
Austria/Hungary 3/3F N6801-6822
France 4/4F N6841-6853
Germany 4/4F N6861-6866
Italy 4/4F N6904-6910
Netherlands 3/3F N6911-6925
Russia 3/2Y N6981-6973
Scandinavia 1/1 N7001-7093
Spain, Portugal 3/3F N7101-7153
Switzerland 3/3F N7141-7153
Eastern Europe 2/2F N7175-7253
Turkey 1/1 N7161-7173

NINETEENTH-CENTURY ART
United States, Canada 4/4F N6501-6549
Latin America 3/2Y N6550-6739
Great Britain 4/4F N6761-6796
Austria/Hungary 3/3F Except Art Nouveau 4/4F N6801-6822
France 4/4F N6841-6853
Germany 4/4F N6861-6866
Italy 4/3F N6904-6910
Netherlands 3/3F N6911-6925
Russia 3/2Y N6973-6981
Scandinavia 1/1 N7001-7093
Spain, Portugal 2/2F N7101-7153
Switzerland 2/2F N7141-7153
Eastern Europe 1/1 N7175-7253

 

TWENTIETH-CENTURY ART
United States, Canada 4/4F N6501-6549
Latin America 3/2Y N6550-6739
Great Britain 4/4F N6761-6796
Austria/Hungary 3/3F N6801-6822
France 4/4F N6841-6853
Germany 4/4F N6861-6866
Italy 4/3F Except Futurism 4/4F N6904-6910
Netherlands 4/3F Except De Stijl, Mondrian 4/4F N6911-6925
Russia 3/3W Except Constructivism 4/4F N6981-6973
Scandinavia 2/2 N7001-7093
Spain, Portugal 2/2F N7101-7153
Switzerland 2/2F N7141-7153
Eastern Europe 1/1 N7175-7253
     

ISLAMIC AND ASIAN ART
Islamic 2/2 N6260-6271
Southwest and Central Asia 2/2 N7260-7299
South Asia 4/2 N7300-7310
Southeastern Asia 3/3F N7311-7332
China 4/4W N7336-7349
Japan 4/4W N7350-7359
Korea 3/3W N7360-7369
Africa 2/2 N7380-7399
Australia, New Zealand 1/1 N7400-7408

SPECIAL TOPICS
Theory, Philosophy, Ethics 3/4F General Arts in STK; Visual Arts in ART N61-72
Study and Teaching Shelved in Cubberley Education Library; except Bauhaus 3/4 N81-390
Art As A Profession 1/1 N8350-8356
Art Studios, Materials, Etc. 1/1 N8510-8553
Conservation and Restoration 1/1 N8554-8580
Economics of Art, Art Dealers 2/2 N8600-8675
Art and The State, Public Art 4/4F N8700-9211

 

ARCHITECTURE
United States, Canada 4/4F NA701-749
Latin America 3/2Y NA701-749
Great Britain 4/4F NA961-997
Austria 4/3F NA1001-1011
France 4/4F NA1041-1053
Germany 4/4F NA1061-1088
Greece 1/1 NA1091-1103
Italy 4/3F NA1111-1123
Netherlands 3/3F NA1131-1173
Russia 3/2Y NA1181-1199
Scandinavia 2/2 NA1201-1293
Spain, Portugal 3/2F NA1301-1333
Switzerland 3/2F NA1341-1353
Turkey 1/1 NA1361-1375
Eastern Europe 1/1 NA1381-1453
Persia 2/2 NA1480
India 4/2F NA1501
China 4/4F NA1540
Japan 4/4F NA1550
Other Countries 2/2 NA1560-1608

SPECIAL TOPICS
Architectural Design and Dwg 1/1 NA2700-2790
Architectural Details, Motives 1/2 NA2835-4050
Special Types of Buildings 3/3 NA4100-8480
Landscape Architecture 3/3F Confined to the history of garden design SB
City Planning 3/3F NA9000-9425

 

SCULPTURE
United States, Canada 4/4F NB205-249
Latin America 2/2Y NB250-459
Great Britain 4/4F NB461-497
Austria 4/4F NB501-511
France 4/4F NB541-553
Germany 4/4F NB559-589
Italy 4/4F NB611-623
Netherlands 4/4F NB625-674
Russia 3/4F NB681-688
Scandinavia 2/2 NB701-793
Spain, Portugal 4/4F NB801-833
Switzerland 3/3F NB841-853
Eastern Europe 1/1 Except early Modernist period 3/3F NB512-534, NB88 1-955
Southwestern & Central Asia 2/2 NB1011-1032
South Asia 4/2F NB1000-1010
Southeastern Asia 3/3F NB1011-1032
China 4/4W NB1036-1049
Japan 4/4W NB1050-1059
Korea 3/3W NB1060-1069
Africa 3/3F NB1080-1099
Australia, New Zealand 2/2 NB1100-1114

 

DRAWING, DESIGN, AND ILLUSTRATION
History of Drawing 4/4F NC50-376
Conserv and Restor'n of Dwgs 1/1 NC930
Illustrat'n, Book Illustrat'n 2/2F NC960-996
Commercial Art, Advertis'g Art 1/1 NC997-1003
Caricature, Pictorial Humor 3/3F NC1280
Posters 2/2 NC1800-1855

PAINTING
United States, Canada 4/4F Especially Western North Am art & artists ND201-238
Latin America 3/2Y ND250-439
Great Britain 4/4F ND461-497
Austria 4/4F ND501-511
France 4/4F ND541-553
Germany 4/4F ND561-588
Italy 4/4F ND611-625
Netherlands 4/4F ND631
Russia 3/2Y Except Constructivism, Malevich 4/4F ND681-699
Scandinavia 2/2 ND701-773
Spain, Portugal 4/4F Especially Picasso ND801-833
Switzerland 3/2F ND841-853
Eastern Europe 1/1 Except early Modernist period 3/3F ND875-953
Southwestern and Central Asia 2/2 ND955-999
South Asia 4/2F ND1000-1010
Southeastern Asia 3/3F ND1011-1032
China 4/4W ND1040-1049
Japan 4/4W ND1050-1059
Korea 3/3W ND1060-1069
Africa 2/2 ND1080-1099
Australia, New Zealand 1/1 ND1100-1107

 

SPECIAL TOPICS
Watercolor Painting 4/4F ND1700-2495
Mural Painting 4/4F ND2550-2888
Illumination of Bks and Mss 4/4F ND2890-3416

 

GRAPHIC ARTS
Printing and Engraving 4/4F NE1-978
Wood Engraving, Woodcuts 4/4F NE1000-1352
Metal Engraving 4/4F NE1400-1879
Etching and Aquatint 4/4F NE1940-2230
Serigraphy 4/4F NE2236-2240
Lithography 4/4F NE2230-2570
Printing of Engravings 4/4F NE2800-2890

DECORATIVE ARTS
History 4/4F NK600-1133
Industrial Design 2/3 NK1151-1158
Decorat'n and Ornam't, Design 4/4F NK1160-1678
Interior Decoration 2/1 NK1700-3505
Interior Dec- Furniture 2/2 NK2200-2750
Interior Dec- Rugs & Carpets 2/1 NK2775
Interior Dec- Tapestries 3/2F NK2995-3089
Ceramics 3/2F NK3700-4695
Costume 2/2 NK4700-4890
Enamel 2/2 NK5000-5015
Glass 2/2 NK5100-5440
Stained Glass 4/4F NK5300-5399
Ivory and Ivory Carving 2/2 NK5800-5998
Metalwork 2/2 NK5800-5998
Textiles 2/2 NK8800-9505
Woodwork 2/2 NK9600-9955
Other Decorative Arts 2/2  
Photography: Hist & Technique 4/4F History: Photography as an art form TR
Numismatics 2/2F Except Classical 3/3F CJ
Calligraphy 1/1 Z43-45