Hello ! Thank you for taking the time to not only create but also constantly update this tumblr. I've learned SO much here and have tried to seek out other resources to help in my studies. One question: HOW exactly would you suggest a person goes about learning about this topic from the very beginning. I tried going organizing by art periods like Renaissance, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Modern, Contemporary but I worry I'm missing a great amount of detail due to different countries, cultures,etc
Well, my first piece of advice would definitely be to start with whatever topic you find the most interesting, because that will be your “beginning”. Chronological order usually doesn’t make much sense, unless you really want to start at the beginning of like, human history. Starting with something you enjoy makes sense, because your interest will fuel you to look carefully and with real enthusiasm, and will lend your perspective toward the material. Diversity of perspective is what I think research today really needs, and you should remember that your lived experience, preferences, and sense of aesthetics is what will make what YOU have to offer a topic truly valuable.
Another bit of advice is to find out what kind of sources are most suited to your learning style and level of engagement. Do you prefer online articles or print sources? Do you like PDFs, ebooks, or files for your phone? Do you like images, databases, timelines, or academic journals?
Here are a few ideas for starting points. The Walters Museum offers a full PDF catalog/book to accompany the Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe exhibit, and you can view the entire thing online for free here. 147 pages with a lot of images of artworks, and a little bit of information about them. If something piques your interest, you can always try and track down more sources about it.
Another fabulous resource for those who might not be 100% sure where they want to start is the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. You can start by searching out something like “The Silk Road” which will start all the way back in antiquity, or just click here. An important part of using this resource is here on the right:
that menu can lead you to clicking and reading for hours, trust me! And you’ll learn a lot, with your own interests and aesthetics guiding you.
Now, if you’re really interested in Illuminated Manuscripts, what you want is the British Library’s Digitized Manuscripts Database. There, you can use their viewer to flip through books from the middle ages as if you held them in your own hands!
Now, if just trying to randomly search out manuscripts is intimidating to start with, never fear-they have a blog! And a Twitter account! You can browse for topics or images you find interesting, and then go back and check out the entire books on the website later. Or don’t! It’s entirely up to you.
Are you interested in explorers and adventure stories? There’s a lot more out there than Marco Polo. My suggestions are to look up Ibn Fadlan, Ching Shih, Zheng He, Ibn Battuta, Hasekura Tsunenaga, and Mai (Omai).
If none of these options is doing it for you, then you can always check out my Static Resources Page and just start clicking things until you find something you like!
And if a list of text links isn’t your style, just click this blog’s Archive View and you’ll see something like this:
You can browse the 6,000+ posts on this blog quickly and easily that way, sort them by type (image, text, quote, link, et cet.), and see posts by month going back three years.
If there’s anything else you’d like to know, feel free to ask! The world is your oyster, and good luck in your research adventures!!
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