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/Maker’s Name (lastname, firstname [optional])

Examples:
Monet, Claude
Picasso

A Quick Search by Artist’s 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: Germany”—all 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 Artist’s 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)