Art history research is a blend of reading the piece yourself and finding scholarly sources and internet sources about the art piece, artists, and symbols. It is often helpful to start with finding broad information about the art, artist, symbolism, and artistic movement that you are studying. You then can build connections between what you see in the piece and how it connects to the research you have found. Concept maps are a great way to start organizing your ideas, creating relationships between different ideas, and seeing gaps where you need new information.
A mind map or concept map is a visual representation of what you know about a topic. Concept maps help you organize your thoughts and explore the relationships in a topic. Use a concept map to organize and represent what you know about a topic. Explore the connections between elements of the topic.
Mind maps can be used to develop a research topic. They are a useful brainstorming tool that helps you focus your topic and identify possible search terms before using the library's databases to search for articles for your assignments.
Most of the time you start with the central idea, topic, or subject. Then you branch out from that central point and show how the main idea can be broken into specific subtopics. Each subtopic can also be broken into even more specific topics. Always review your map to add more related terms and concepts.
Ask yourself:
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Grove Art Online is a scholarly art encyclopedia, covering global art and architecture. Provides access to art dictionaries, plus extensive image links and online reference resources.
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