Thomas J. Watson Library
Hazen Center

Index of Christian Art (ICA)
Contents & Search Tips

Description:

A thematic and iconographic index of early Christian and Medieval art objects. Besides iconographic descriptions of works of art, the database includes bibliographic records, and information such as style, school, location, and more.
 
 
Coverage:  

From early apostolic times to 1400 A.D. (With the inclusion of the holdings of the Morgan Library the date has been extended to 1700.)
Note: As yet, the database contains only a portion of the holdings of the Index in Princeton. Also, many of the images are restricted due to copyright.
 
Update Frequency:   Weekly
 
Search Tips
   
Operators
 
AND Finds records that contain both terms. Abraham and Isaac
OR

Finds records that contain either or both of two terms. Virgin or Mary in subject will return records with either or both terms appear in the subject. OR broadens a search.
NOT

Finds records that contain one term but not the other. Thomas not Becket

ADJACENT Some screens allow a choice of "Adjacent?" which finds records where the entered terms are next to each other.
   
Truncation
 
?

Can be used at the beginning, middle or end of a word. arch?eology retrieves archaeology and archeology.

   
Field Contents
   
Browse Browse is excellent for determining what kind of information the database contains in various fields.
A few of the fields are described below.
SUBJECT The name of a person, scene, object, text or other Index subject-heading. Subjects in the Index of Christian Art describe the work of art.
Christ: deposition would be a subject heading. Gothic architecture would not.
LOCATION Is the physical (geographical) location of the work of art. E.g. Siena: Cathedral, Assunta or New York: Museum, Metropolitan Museum.
WORK OF ART A Work of Art is one of the principal record types of the ICA. The field itself contains the name of the work of art.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Bibliographic records are also a principal record type in the ICA. Each record contains author, title and other citation fields. Bibliographic records are associated with Work of Art records.
MEDIUM This field does not appear in the browse list but can be searched. Some of the values are enamel, fresco, glass, glyptic, illustrated manuscript, ivory, leather, metal, mosaic, terra cotta, textile, painting, sculpture, undetermined material and wax.
Other Other fields should be investigated using the browse option. Some fields like Style and School are fairly self-explanatory. Manuscript as a field contains the location of manuscripts.
 
Searches in ICA
   
SIMPLE SEARCH

In the simple search you can input any search words against one of 12 predetermined field. E.g. Select "subject" from the pull down choices.
Enter Abraham and Isaac in the search terms.This will retrieve all records where both Abraham and Isaac appear in any subject headings.

Note: To do a general keyword search select "All Fields" from the pull down.

ADVANCED SEARCH

The advanced search works exactly like the simple search except you can limit the results by record type: Work of Art, Bibliography, Subject or All (no limit).
MULTIFIELD SEARCH

There are two independent searches where you can enter your own criteria in certain pre-determined fields.
The first lets you search subject, style and description.
E.g., you could search for "adoration and magi" (subject), renaissance (style) and "star" (words in description).

The second search involves subject and location and medium.
E.g., you could search for "adoration and magi" in subject, "Vienna" in location and "manuscript" in medium.