Art 350: Methods of Art History

N-NX -- Fine Arts

The St. Olaf and Carleton libraries use the Library of Congress (LC) Classification System to organize books.  LC uses the prefix "N" to designate books relating to the Fine Arts.  At St. Olaf the "N" section is located on the 4th level of Rolvaag Library.  The "N" section is subdivided as follows:

You may not be able to search for books or articles by doing a Keyword search using the name of a particular art object.  Unless it is a major piece, discussion of a particular art object will probably be included in the context of a book or article covering a particular historical period, genre, or culture.  Before going to a search engine, map out some possible strategies for finding the literature.  Here are some examples of things to consider:
 

Culture: e.g. Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Japanese, etc.

Historical Period: e.g. 2nd Century, Egypt - Middle Kingdom, etc.

Material: e.g. ceramic, granite, bronze, etc.

Object: e.g. figure, deity, jar, boat, relief, etc.

Theme: e.g. paradise, family, death, offering, etc.

Genre: e.g. sculpture, painting, architecture, etc.