LibGuides: History 114. China: Origins to 1600: Locating Visual Images

Print Resources

Exhibition catalogs from museums and art galleries are an excellent way to find examples of material culture for your assignment, because they always have good scholarly articles relating to the subject as well as good images. Here are some subject headings you can use to locate exhibition catalogs as well as some particular examples.

Art objects, Chinese -- Song-Yuan dynasties, 960-1368
Art, Chinese -- Song-Yuan dynasties, 960-1368 -- Exhibitions
Art, Chinese -- Ming-Qing dynasties, 1368-1912 -- Exhibitions

Online Sources of Visual Images

ARTstor
- This link opens in a new window
More than two million digital images of works of fine art, architecture and design.

Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.

AMICA Library
Art History Resources on the Web - Chinese Art
This is a collection of links to Chinese art resources gathered by a professor at Sweetbriar College. There are links to museum sites, history sites, and art history sites, all of which contain images.
Smithsonian Institution's Freer & Sackler Galleries
The Freer and Sackler galleries have one of the best collections of Chinese art outside of China. Choose "Browse" under "Chinese Art" from the menu on the left to start working through the images.
National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
The National Palace Museum has selected thousands of works from their permanent collection to be included in a digitized collection. The scope of these works spans seven millennia of Chinese history and pre-history. Works include rare books, ceramics, paintings, bronzes, jewelry, studio accessories, costumes, and more. These images are in low resolution, but to get to high-res versions, please contact Brian Shelburne (bps@library.umass.edu) at the Image Collection Library.
Online Museum Resources on Asian Art, Columbia University
Gateway to museum sites, specifically online exhibitions, according to subject area or topic, time period, country/region, and religion.
Chinese Art section of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Heilbrun Timeline of Art History
The Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History is a chronological, geographical, and thematic exploration of the history of art from around the world, as illustrated by the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection. Within the Chinese Art area are thematic essays on many aspects of Chinese art, history, and culture. The essays also incorporate images.