Research on your topic to answer an analytical question (why and how) rather than a "proof" of an argument, or an "evolution" of a style/feature through time.

I. Start with a building/site.

II. Relate Your Building/Site to Their Thematic Issues

III. Focus on Specific Elements Most Interesting to You

IV. Situate Your Paper within the Current Scholarship

I. Start with a building, a site, an event, or a case study -- "a tangible and specific topic"

Note concepts, people, event, etc.; look up the bibliographies in the sources.

Search further on those authors and/or in those journals for more current scholarship when relevant.

The Oxford Companion to Christian Art and Architecture. N7830 .M87 1996
English Mediaeval Architects: a Biographical Dictionary Down to 1550: Including Master Masons, Carpenters, Carvers, Building Contractors, and Others Responsible for Design. NA963 .H37 1984

Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art. N7560 .H34 2008
Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography. N7560 .E53 1998
The Dent Dictionary of Symbols in Christian Art. N7825 .S68 1994
Symbolism in Liturgical Art. N7825 .A7

Include name and location of the building when searching the Catalog.

For example, the building, Notre Dame at Amiens in France.

"Notre Dame" and Amiens and architecture

Among the search results, a monograph on the building,
Notre Dame, Cathedral of Amiens: the Power of Change in Gothic by Stephen Murray.

II. Explore the Building and Related Thematic Issues of its Type/Style

Subject Headings in a catalog/database are important clues, which lead to broader/related contexts.

Follow this subject heading of the previous book here: Architecture, Gothic

One result is a thematic study, Artistic Integration in Gothic Buildings. edited by Virginia Chieffo Raguin, Kathryn Brush, Peter Draper.

[Take advantage of this rule; search, in the catalog/databases, for the authors/titles in your course readings and explore the subject headings for further clues on a potential topic interesting to you. You can start by examining the Course Reserves in the Catalog.]

From Specific Buildings to the Broader Contexts:

Relating your building to others of its kind helps you think critically about how architects make choices that are not only aesthetic, but are also functionally or historically conditioned.

What aspects appear characteristic of the building type as a whole, and what aspects vary? How are these continuities and contrasts analyzed, e.g., site requirements, client status, broader social, religious and political contexts and so on?

A Second Example

If your initial interest is about “Great Mosque at Cordoba”, expand your scope or focus your topic as needed:

1. Start with a simple keyword search on a specific building:

Mosque and Cordoba

2. Relate your building to others of its type: the architecture of mosques in Spain or in Spanish style:

Mosque* and architect* and (spain or spanish)

3. The Great Mosque at Cordoba (Spain) represents a synthesis of cultures, architectural styles and religious iconography, so explore the interaction of Muslims/Islam and the Christians/Christianity:

Mosque* and christian* and (spain or spanish)

III. Focus on Specific Architectural Features, Historical Evidence or other Elements most Interesting to You

For examples:

Decoration and ornament architectural
Decoration and ornament, Gothic

"stained glass" and (church* or cathedral*)

sculpt* and (church or cathedral or monast*) and medieval

If the sculpture, Luxuria in the Abbaye St-Pierre de Moissac interests you; explore all possible angles such as:

1. the symbolic significance of the animals, especially toads and snakes, e.g.,

grotesque* and art and medieval.

Or, medieval and art and (animal* or beast*)

2. compare with tamer luxuria images in Last Judgment scenes, as in the tympani of St. Foy and Santiago de Compostela, e.g.

sculptur* and "Santiago de Compostela"

3. contextualize the work within the larger sculptural program of the cathedral, e.g.,

Pierre and Moissac

4. Consider gender theory, regarding gender ambiguity, e.g.,

medieval and art and gender

IV. Situate Your Paper within a Critical Discourse -- Current Scholarship in the Field

Read scholarly articles to discover:

*What are the primary themes/central debates on your topic?

*What are the dominant assumptions?

*What evidence are examined; what are left out or less emphasized?

*Are the analysis done from a particular viewpoint, e.g. architect, patron, or user?

*The extent of historical analysis (the religious, political, social contexts)?

*What questions are left unanswered?

Research on your topic to ask an analytical question (why and how) rather than a "proof" of an argument, or an "evolution" of a style or feature through time.

There are many possible " right answers" to an analytical question, which leads to discussions and debates. Develop your own argument or your position on why one argument is more reasonable/logical than another.

A. Search for Review Articles:

Review of books and other types of review articles in some major journals in a discipline summarize current state of research on a topic.

Examples of reviews of books:

Bork, Robert. "Gothic Architecture." Speculum 83:1 (2008), 177-179.

Thurlby, Malcolm. "The Formation of English Gothic: Architecture and Identity." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians  66:4 (2007), 527-528.

Use review of books to discover the debates in the field that the reviewers identify. You might consider such questions as: does the reviewer agree or disagree with the book’s theses and approaches? Does the reviewer provide new evidence not included in the book? What does the reviewer see as the relevance of the book? What questions not included in the book does the reviewer identify? Based on this book review, what do you think are a few of the major questions or methodologies being used in your chosen field?

Your specific topic may not be addressed in a specific book review. For example, if you chose to work on Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling, you might not be able to find a review on this work. Hence, you might look for articles that review books more generally in 16th-century Italian art, that cover patronage in Rome during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, that deal with influential Italian artists through history, etc. That is to say, work from the specific search on your topic to the more general areas of the field. This will make finding a book review easier.

B. More Articles like this "perfect" one

How:

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

For example:

Sponsler, Claire. "On the Threshold of the Flamboyant- the 2nd Campaign of Construction of Saint-Urbain, Troyes." CLIO  21: 3 (1992), 265-283.
References: 23 Times Cited: 5

You can, then, look up, in the record, the 23 references that Sponsler cited for her article and, in turn, 5 articles that cited hers. The assumption is that these articles address related issues.

Appendix I. A Few Primary Sources at Tisch

Early Medieval Art, 300-1150; Sources and Documents. / [compiled by] Caecilia Davis-Weyer.
Oversize: N5975 .D3

This anthology collects sources relevant to an understanding of early medieval art: description of lost monuments, theoretical, technical, and other texts that reveal intentions of particular patrons and artists or esthetic attitudes of the literate public. It also contains a number of liturgical texts, describing ritual use of medieval artifacts.

Horn, Walter William and Ernest Born. The Plan of St. Gall: a Study of the Architecture & Economy of & Life in a Aaradigmatic Carolingian Monastery.

(foreword by Wolfgang Braunfels; a translation into English by Charles W. Jones of the Directives of Adalhard, 753-826, the Ninth Abbot of Corbie; and with a note by A. Hunter Dupree on the Significance of the Plan of St. Gall to the history of measurement.)

Special Colletions: BX2659.S32 H67

Inventory of the Historical Monuments in London. [DA675 .A3]

Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England). Some plates printed on both sides.

v. 1. Westminster Abbey -- v. 2. West London -- v. 3. Roman London -- v. 4. The City -- v. 5. East London.

Appendix II. Finding Full Texts

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;

Request Articles/Books

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.

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.

Appendix III. Digital Images

ARTstor (including SAHARA Project by the Society of Architectural Historians)

Great Buildings Collection (from the magazine ArchitectureWeek)

Index of Christian Art (Princeton University)

Appendix III. Writing and Citing Sources

Writing about Art & Art History (The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

Chicago Style Manual (for citing sources)

RefWorks