Search Instructions
CONTENTS
1. Quick Search
2. Advanced Search
3. Difference Between AND and OR Searches
4. Writing Effective AND Searches
5. Writing Effective OR Searches
6. Searching by Nationality of Artist/Maker and Place or
Culture of Object
7. Searching by Name of Artist/Maker
1. Quick Search
The fastest and most reliable way to search the
Portal is Quick
Search. The Quick Search page offers three different
searches:
1. Artist/Makers Name (lastname, firstname [optional])
Examples:
Monet, Claude
Picasso
A Quick Search by Artists Name for Monet, Claude
would return all objects by Claude Monet from all museums participating
in the Portal.
2. Nationality of Artist/Maker
Examples:
France
Germany
A Quick Search by Nationality of Artist/Maker for France
would return all works by known French artists from all museums participating
in the Portal. (TIP: English-language names of countries are preferred,
e.g. Italy rather than Italia, Germany rather than Deutschland.)
3. Place or Culture of Object (if Artist/Maker unknown)
Examples:
France
Germany
A Quick Search by Place or Culture of Objects for France
would return all works associated with France whether the Artist is known or unknown.
(TIP: English-language names of countries are preferred, e.g. Italy rather
than Italia, Germany rather than Deutschland.)
Quick Searches are comprehensive. They are unlikely to miss potential matches. However, Quick Searches are
also very broad. For example, a search for all objects by French artists
will return a large number of records to sort through.
2. Advanced Search
Advanced
Search allows you to search all fields
in the Portal, alone or in combinations of your own choosing.
The fields available are:
1. Artist/Maker Name (lastname, firstname [optional])
Examples:
Monet, Claude
Picasso
2. Nationality or Artist/Maker (country or nation name, English spelling
preferred)
Examples:
France
Germany
3. Place or Culture of Object if Artist/Maker Unknown (country or nation
name, English spelling preferred)
Examples:
France
Germany
4. Object Title or Name (English spelling preferred) TIP: see also
Keywords field
Example:
Water Lillies
5. Object Type
Examples:
Painting
Drawing
6. Description (terms describing the content of the object) TIP: see
also Keywords field
Example:
woman at a table
7. Keywords (three or four words that describe the object you are seeking)
TIP: The Keywords field searches both Title and Description in a single
search.
Example:
water lilies Giverny
3. Difference Between AND and OR Searches
An Advanced Search runs as an AND or an OR search. In an AND search,
the Portal returns objects which match all the parameters
you specified. This reduces the number of records found.
In an OR search, the Portal returns objects which match any of the parameters
you specified. This maximizes the number of records found.
The two strategies can return very different results. For example, if you were to search for Artist/Maker Name: Monet
and Nationality of Artist/Maker: Germany:
- as an AND search, you would get no matches. Claude Monet was a French
citizen; therefore, no object will be listed in the Portal as Artist/Maker
Name: Monet in combination with Nationality of Artist/Maker:
Germany.
- as an OR search, you get all objects in the Portal database created
by Claude Monet, and also all objects that are listed as Nationality
of Artist/Maker: Germanyall Albrecht Durers, all Ernst-Ludwig
Kirchners, and so on. Instead of no results, you would get many.
Obviously you would not run such a self-contradictory search. However,
the example illustrates the dramatic difference between AND and OR searches
using the same terms.
4. Writing Effective AND Searches
You should include only two to three terms in an initial AND search.
If you use more terms, you might inadvertently filter out the object you
are seeking. You should also choose terms that a reasonable cataloger
might use to describe the object you are seeking. If you use very precise
terms (for example, breakfast table rather than table, pomegranate rather
than fruit) you may eliminate relevant matches by accident.
If your first search returns a large number of records, you can add additional
terms and try again.
If your first search returns no matches, reduce the number of terms or
try different combinations to broaden your search. If you started with
three terms (for example, Monet AND Water Lilies AND Giverny) try again
with different combinations of two terms (for example, Monet AND Water
Lilies, or Monet AND Giverny). You can also substitute general synonyms
for specific terms in your search.
If you still get no matches, try your most likely sets of two terms as
an OR search.
5. Writing Effective OR Searches
Effective OR searches usually include only one or two terms. In general,
you should not include broad fields like Nationality of Artist/Maker
in an OR search, since these will produce irrelevant matches.
When choosing keywords for your search, begin with precise terms; for
example, pomegranate rather than fruit, or hare rather than game. If these
return no results, you can then substitute more general synonyms.
6. Searching by Nationality of Artist/Maker
and Place or Culture of Object
In designing the Portal, we wanted to ensure that people seeking objects
would not miss relevant records due to variant spellings of place names.
Consider the artist Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. One person might record
the Nationality of Artist for Rembrandt as "Dutch." Another
person might use the term "Holland." A third might use the term
Flemish, and a fourth Netherlandish. And a searcher
might reasonably expect to find works by Rembrandt by searching on "Netherlands."
To eliminate the possibility of confusion, the Portal uses the English-language
variant of present-day nation names as the place name of record for
Nationality of Artist/Maker and Place or Culture of Object. Here are some
examples: art and artists from the British isles are listed under United
Kingdom rather than "England", "English", "Britain",
or "British"; art from the Dutch-speaking Low Countries is listed
under Netherlands rather than "Holland" or "Dutch";
art from most German-speaking areas is listed under Germany rather than
"Prussia", "Prussian", "Bavaria", or "Bavarian,"
etc. ; art from the Italian city-states is listed under Italy rather than
"Venice" or "Venetian", "Florence" or "Florentine",
etc.
If you would like to search for objects using a more precise place attribution
you should try that term in the Keyword field, not the Nationality
of Artist/Maker and Place or Culture of Object field. For example,
entering "Venice" and "Venetian" into the Keyword
field and running an "OR" search will return all objects in
the Portal thought to be associated with Venice. Similarly, a search for
"Flemish" and "Flanders" in the Keyword field will
return all objects in the Portal thought to be associated with the Flemish
school.
Note also that the Portal attributes objects and artists to the present-day
nation which best represents the culture of the artist or the object at
the time the art was created. For example, an object created in the
medieval German city of Koenigsberg will be recorded as coming from Germany,
not from Russia (even though Koenigsberg is now the Russian city of Kaliningrad).
7. Searching by Name of Artist/Maker
In designing the Portal, we wanted to ensure that people seeking objects
would not miss relevant records due to variant spellings of artists' names.
If a searcher inputs "Wassily Kandinsky" in a search form, for
example, we want them to retrieve all records for "Kandinskij, Vasilij."
To ensure consistency in identifying artists, we have adopted the Getty
Vocabulary Program's Union List of Artist Names (ULAN). ULAN is a structured
vocabulary that contains around 220,000 names of artists.
When you enter an Artist's Name into the Portal, the Portal checks your
input against its table of recognized artists. If the Portal recognizes
your Artist's Name input as a variation of a known artist, it returns
all records associated with that artist. If the Portal can't match your
Artist's Name to a recognized artist, it will notify you with an error
message. In the message, the Portal will provide a link to a pop-up search
box you can use to enter some or all of your spelling, and see all names
in the Portal's table that are close matches. You can then make a note
of the preferred spelling that represents your artist and try your search
again.
If the artist or creator of an object is unknown, the name Anonymous
is assigned in the Portal. If an object is attributed to a "School,"
"Workshop," or "Follower of," or is identified as
"After [name or artist]" the Portal will assign the primary
Artists Name associated with the school or workshop to the object,
and make a note of the qualified attribution in the Description field.
For example, an object attributed to a Follower of Alessandro Longhi will
appear in Portal as:
Artist/Maker Name: Longhi, Alessandro
Description: Follower of Alessandro Longhi
An object attributed to the Circle of Jacob Adriaensz. Bellevois will
appear in Portal as:
Artist/Maker Name: Bellevois, Jacob Adriaensz.
Description: Circle of Jacob Adriaensz. Bellevois
Finally, an object attributed as Antwerp 16th Century (Possibly Matthys
Cock) will appear in Portal as:
Artist/Maker Name: anonymous
Description: Antwerp 16th Century (Possibly Matthys Cock)
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