A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: Art Indexing in Electronic Databases

The enormous number of images of works of art available on the Internet promises great potential for research in art history and related image-using disciplines. Yet without adequate indexing, this resource is very difficult to explore. It is certainly necessary to identify each image with the basic unique information relating to it, but more is needed. Since it is largely the concepts related to works of art that interest art historians, it is these concepts that need to be reflected in indexing terminology. As these concepts have changed over time, a sizeable verbal infrastructure is needed to support the indexing of large image databases to achieve maximum use by art historians.