Check out the Course Reserves.

120 Thematic Essays on Asian Art (images & bibliographies, the Metropolitan Museum of Art)

The Virtual Museum of Japanese Arts

Oxford Art Online

Dictionary of Buddhism

Encyclopedia of Women in Religious Art.

A. Use Library Catalogs to find books

1. Tufts Libraries Catalog

2. WorldCat (beyond Tufts)

B. Searches & Results

(note the search pattern; adapt for your own needs)

Specific Interests:

Women in Buddhism

Buddhist nuns

Buddhist goddesses

Buddhist goddesses in art

 

Amitābha (Buddhist deity)

Pure Land Buddhism

Pure Land Buddhism in art

 

Mahayana Buddhism

Mandala (Buddhism)

 

Mahayana Buddhism

Upāya (Buddhism)

 

Avalokiteśvara (Buddhist deity) (Guan Yi or Kuan Yi)

 

Bodhisattva

 

buddh* and gender

 

*Use ( ) and OR to group related words in a search;

*buddh* searches for Buddha, buddhist, buddhism, etc.

 

In the Contexts of:

Buddhist Art -- China.

Buddhist Art -- India.

Buddhist Art -- Japan.

 

Broader Contexts:

Buddhist art

Buddhist architecture

 

Buddhism and art

Buddhism and culture

Buddhism and literature

 

Types of Documents:

Buddhist Art -- Exhibitions.

 

These exhibition and museum catalogues are uniquely valuable sources, which may include:

*Fundamental data on each work of art;

*Official images of the artworks;

*Curatorial statements/essays;

*essays by art critics/historians;

*list of scholarly publications on the art,

*and more.

Here are two example:

The Smile of Buddha: 1600 Years of Buddhist art in Korea / conceived by Jan Van Alphen; with contributions by: Jan Van Alphen ... [et al.] N8193.A3 B78 2008

Buddha, Buddhism and Buddhist art in India / Jan Van Alphen -- Chinese roots of Korean Buddhism : The Chinese transformation of Buddhism / Etienne Hauttekeete -- Korean Buddhism : a historical overview / Sem Vermeersch -- Buddhism : the origin of Korean art / Kan Woo Bang -- Development and characteristics of Buddhist sculpture in Korea / Kwak Dong Seok -- Buddhist architecture of Korea / Kim Bongryol -- The charcteristics and transformation of Koren Buddhist crafts / Choi Eung-Chon -- Buddhist ceramics in Korea : three kingdoms to Goryeo period / Kim Young-Won -- Buddhist paintings of Korea / Kim Seung Hee.

 

 

Path of Discovery in the Catalog

1. Find a title/author (assigned readings/Course Reserves);

2. Note the descriptive language of the Catalog record.

3. Use that language in further searches

 

e.g. Click on subject/author in the record to see further results and related topics.

 

Author	Gross, Rita M.
Title	Buddhism after Patriarchy: a Feminist History, Analysis, and Reconstruction of Buddhism.
Publisher	Albany: State University of New York Press, c1993.
Contents	Portraits of Shinran in medieval pure land Buddhism / James C. Dobbins -- "My reflection should be your keepsake": Myōe's vision of the Kasuga deity / Karen L. Brock -- Icons and relics in Eison's religious activities / Paul Groner -- Visualization and mandala in Shingon Buddhism / Robert H. Sharf.
Subject	Women in Buddhism.
	Women -- Religious aspects -- Buddhism.
	Feminism -- Religious aspects -- Buddhism.
	Buddhism -- Doctrines.

Reading Buddhist Art: an Illustrated Guide to Buddhist Signs and Symbols.
Meher McArthur.
N8193 .M39 2002.

Dictionary of Buddhist Iconography.
Lokesh Chandra..
Ref. BQ4620 .L65 1999

Buddhist Art and Architecture. Oversize: N8193.A4 F57 1993

The Art of Buddhism: an Introduction to its History & Meaning. Oversize: N8193.A5 L45 2008

The Arts of China / William Watson.
[v. 1.] To AD 900 -- [v. 2.] 900-1620 -- [v. 3] After 1620.

The Arts of China / Michael Sullivan.

The Art and Architecture of India. Oversize: N7301 .R68

Hindu Art and Architecture. Oversize: N8195.A4 M53 2000

History of Japanese Art.
Penelope Mason; revised by Donald Dinwiddie.
N7350 .M26 2005

The Arts of China.
Michael Sullivan.
N7340 .S92 2008

Indian Art.
Partha Mitter.
N7301 .M48 2001

Indian Art in Detail.
A.L. Dallapiccola.
N7301 .D26 2007

A. Use the subject databases to find journal articles and to situate yourself within a critical discourse; that's where you can learn to be conversant with the critics writing in your field.

1 & 2. JSTOR and Project Muse

JSTOR is a favorite with its full texts in core journals of all disciplines. Project Muse does not include exactly the same JSTOR journals, but it has more recent and current articles on many topics.

 

3. Academic OneFile
All subjects; a convenient Quick Start.

 

4. with Particular Focuses/Perspectives:

Bibliography of Asian Studies

Anthropology Plus

 

5. Search across groups of Databases. Or, separately:

History, Religion, and Women's Studies

 

 

Film & Television and Mass Media

Limit Your Results

Peer Reviewed

 

 

ARTbiliographies Modern
International Bibliography of Art
Architecture (the Avery Index)
MLA (Literature)

 

 

6. When use GoogleScholar, set your Library Links to access Tufts full texts.

B. Build up Your Search

1. Start with "nouns": the art objects, authors, and titles of books and articles in your readings.

2. Examine the initial search results to discover what scholars have written about these writers, authors, and their works: "issues" addressed; the central debates on these issues, evidence and methods applied in analysis of these issues, and so on.

C. Current Scholarship on a Topic

Reviews of recent books and other types of review articles in major journals in a discipline are likely to summarize the current state of research in an area.

Two examples:

Michael Saso. "Preachers, Poets, Women, and the Way: Izumi Shikibu and the Buddhist Literature of Medieval Japan (review)." Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 70.2 (2010): 541-546.

 

Rita M. Gross. "Courtesans and Tantric Consorts: Sexualities in Buddhist Narrative, Iconography, and Ritual (review)." Buddhist-Christian Studies 25 (2005): 174-176.

D. Find More Articles like this "perfect" one

How:

Search, in Arts and Humanities Citation Index, for the article you have read.

Harrison, Paul. "Women in the Pure Land: Some reflections on the textual sources (Chinese Buddhism, Amitabha, belief, rebirth, afterlife)." Journal of Indian Philosophy 26: 6 (1998) 553-572.
References: 21 Times Cited: 2

You can, then, look up, in the record, the 21 references that Harrison cited for his article and, in turn, 2 articles (so far) that cited his. The assumption is that these articles address related issues.

 

Note:

1. Not every single article is cited;
2. Influential authors are cited more often;
3. More recent publications take time to be cited.

A. Current:

Book, Movie, Music, Play, And Video Reviews (in LexisNexis)

Factiva (more international coverage)

B. Historical

Times Digital Archive  (1785 - 1985)

New York Times Online Archive
(1851 - 3 years before current date)

Art Index Retrospective   (1929- 1982)

 

Readers' Guide Retrospective (1890-1982)

American Periodicals (1740 - 1940)

British Humanities Index (1962- )
British Periodicals (1680s - 1930s)

1. Click on the button in your search results screen to a window of three sequential options:

a. link to the digital full text when available;

b. link to a Library Catalog search for the print journal;

c. link to ILliad for requesting the article when the above two options are negative.

2. Search for a journal directly here:

a. Tufts Library Catalog (including e-journals)

b. Electronic journals list

c. Use ILliad to request your article, if Tufts does not have your journal.

Set up for your ILliad account

Use ILLiad, our Interlibrary Loan Service, to request articles, books and other materials that are not available at Tufts.

Digital Images

ARTstor

Artifact

Print Images

Search the Catalog with keywords such as Exhibitions or Catalogs:

 

Buddhist Art -- Exhibitions.

Buddhist Art -- China -- Catalogs.

Writing the Art History paper (Dartmouth Writing Program)

Citing Sources:

Chicago Style Manual

RefWorks (a Citation Management Tool)