All Things Visual: The University of Chicago Visual Resources Center

A new collection, Korean History in Postcards, is now available in LUNA. Included are over 7,500 postcard images of Korea during the first half of the 20th century from the Busan Museum.

…back upstairs, and down the hall! Please come visit us in Suite 257 of the Cochrane-Woods Art Center.

The beginning of fall quarter is quickly approaching. Need help using ARTstor? Finding what you need in LUNA? Creating presentations? As a reminder, VRC staff are available for individual or group training sessions. We also provide in-class image searching orientation for students in the humanities. If you are interested in scheduling a session, please contact us.

What’s the easiest way to share images from LUNA and ARTstor?
Create a link.
 
LUNA‘s Share This feature creates a link for whatever you’re looking at: one image, a group of images, search results, or even a presentation. Just click Share This in the window you want to share. Copy the link and paste into an email or Chalk. For details, see LUNA Help.

ARTstor has a similar feature. Select the image thumbnail or view the image group you want to share. Click Generate image url in the Share menu. For full details, see ARTstor Help.

Valentine’s Day is almost here. Find inspiration in some works of art depicting love and devotion!

One way to search for these works in ARTstor: subject headings. Here is a short list of the possibilities. Some of our favorite artists and titles from each search are included as well.

Heart in art: Fluttering Hearts, Cover of Cahiers d’Art XI No. 1-2 by Marcel Duchamp; Felt Heart by A.R. Penck

Love: Vow to Love by Jean-Honoré Fragonard; Pygmalion and Galatea by Jean-Léon Gérôme

Flowers: Flower with Glasses by Mark Grotjahn; Maresias by Beatriz Milhazes

Cupid (Roman deity): Apollo, Cupid and Dancing Putti by Jacopo Palma Giovane; Lady Standing at the Virginal by Jan Vermeer

Kissing: Intimacy by Eugène Carrière; The Kiss by Roy Lichtenstein

Not a fan of Valentine’s Day? You could try these subject headings instead:

Lovesickness:  Young Lover and His Servant by a follower of Giorgione; Love Suicides at Sonezaki by Chikamatsu Monzaemon

Despair: Despair by Edvard Munch; Study for ‘Oath of Horatii’ by Jacques-Louis David

Crying: Mask Representing a Female Ancestor by an unknown artist; Weeping Woman by Pablo Picasso

But wait! Just because you don’t like Valentine’s Day doesn’t mean you’re unhappy…

Smiling in art: Face by Okamoto Taro; Kiki with Moss by Takashi Murakami

You can also search for these artists or titles as keywords. Enjoy!

Staff members of the VRC use subject headings from different thesauri to describe the collection’s images. Subject headings can be combined to create complex and precise searches, gathering together all available resources on a particular topic. Some of the thesauri we use? The Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT), the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN), and, of course, the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), just to name a few. We are often surprised by the variety of subject headings available and how frequently we expand our own vocabulary.

Just for fun, we’ve compiled the ABCs of subject headings – a list of our favorites, one for every letter of the alphabet. We have also listed some of our favorite runners-up. Try doing a subject search in ARTstor or LUNA for one of these topics, or click on the links below to see search results from our collection. You might discover something new and surprising, or at the very least, entertaining.

Our Favorites:

Abandoned buildings
Break dancing
Credulity
Diseases in Art
Electronic surveillance
Fingernails
Ghouls and ogres
Headrests
Identity (Philosophical concept) in art
Jugglers
Kissing
Labyrinths in art
Musical instruments – handbells
Newspaper vendors
Older people
Predation (Biology)
Quarreling
Ruins in art
Self-perception
Truck stops
Underwater cinematography
Ventriloquism
Women cleaning personnel
X-rays
Yurts
Zodiac

Runners-up:

Arm Wrestling
Canned meat
Drooling
Elopement
Future in art
Glaciers
Human sacrifice
Infrared photography
Leeches
Moving walkways
Nightmares
Osiers
Staircases
Yawning

LUNA, the VRC’s new Web-based image delivery system, is now available with over 165,000 images.
 

LUNA allows you to search image collections, manipulate images, and create image-based presentations ideal for classroom and professional use. Zoom in and crop high-resolution images and quickly share your content as a hyperlink. Individual images can also be exported to other presentation software, such as PowerPoint and Keynote.

Click here to learn more.

. . . make a PowerPoint presentation?

. . . create a high-quality digital image?

. . . find works of art in the VRC Collection?

. . . export a detail from Luna Insight?

. . . share a group of images in ARTstor?

The VRC can help you with all things related to digital imaging. Contact us to set up an appointment.

Use this method when you know specific details about the image you’re looking for. It’s especially useful for searching object types or styles and periods. Search by data fields to view all images of houses, for example, but not paintings that depict houses; to view all African or East Asian art, not limited to specific cultures; or to view all art from the Edo or Archaic periods, without Late, Middle or Early subdivisions.

To Search by Data Fields:
After you have opened Luna Insight, select search in the menu on the far left. Then, click by data fields. Next, choose the field (such as Object Type, Style Period, Subject Heading, Agent (Artist), etc.) that you want to search.

After you select a field, the relation menu pops up. This is where you choose how to search. Selecting equals will produce a list of terms to choose from. Contains is a keyword search limited to the field of your choosing.

Next, the value box becomes visible. Type in a search term and click search.

Alternately, you can add additional search terms before clicking search. Click and or or beneath the value box. You will return to the Search by Data Fields field menu. Repeat the steps above to further refine your search.

Examples:

1. To view all images of houses, but not art work that depicts houses, select ObjectTypes in the field menu. Select contains. Type House in the value box. Click search.
2. To view all East Asian art, select StylePeriod in the field menu. Select contains. Type East Asian in the value box. Click search.
3. To view all art from the Archaic period, select StylePeriod in the field menu. Select contains from the relation menu. Type Archaic in the value box. Click search.

Contact the VRC to learn more about how to find exactly what you’re looking for.