Image Sources
Numerous image sources are integrated in the arthistoricum.net catalogue. In addition to the cross-media search, images can also be researched in the image search room via a light table display.
Image search
Viewer Mirador (IIIF-Umgebung)
Introductions for the Viewer Mirador (only in German)
More about annotation und indvidual image collections in teh viewer Mirador
All image data integrated in arthistoricum.net are available in IIIF format. They can be opened and further processed in the arthistoricum.net image viewer Mirador. You have the possibility to share image collections and, after registration, to make annotations. For all image data, IIIF manifests are offered in the detailed display, which can also be dragged into your own working environment. All images receive standardised metadata via the manifests.
Image sources scroll to top
- Deutsche Fotothek (German Photographic Collection)
With the image database of the Deutsche Fotothek you have access to a photographic universal archive with a diverse range of topics. The collection focuses on the history of photography, art, architecture and the history of technology. With the Archive of Photographers, the Deutsche Fotothek is dedicated to the analog and digital heritage of artistic photography.
- ETH Library’s Image Archive, Zurich
The image archive holds 3.5 million images from the archives of the ETH institutes and from numerous other sources. Around 130,000 digitally available image documents can be researched via arthistoricum.net. These are primarily architectural photographs focussing on Swiss architecture and urban planning. Another important feature is an archive of views and postcards, in which several 10,000 historical photographs with views of international sights and regions are available and can be researched.
- Photo library of the Bibliotheca Hertziana
With its analog as well as digital holdings primarily on Italian art and architecture from late antiquity to the present, the Fotothek is one of the leading art historical photo archives worldwide. The collection is systematically expanded through scientific photo campaigns, targeted photo acquisitions, as well as donations and bequests.
- HeidICON - The Heidelberg Object and Multimedia Database
heidICON is the object and multimedia database of the Heidelberg University Library. In arthistoricum.net, images of book illumination from the Heidelberg Bibliotheca Palatina, images from the Graphic Collection of the UB as well as iconographically detailed caricatures from German, British and French satirical magazines (including "Fliegende Blätter", "Punch", "Le Rire", "Le Charivari") are integrated.
- Phototheque of the Art History Institute Florence
The Photothek of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence is dedicated to the study of Italian art and architecture from late antiquity to the present, with a focus on central and northern Italy. The Photothek's digital holdings are composed of digitized in-house negatives and digital photographs under KHI copyright.
- Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
With around 1 million objects, the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam is one of the most important museum collections in Europe. The collection focuses on painting and art of the Netherlands. The Rijskmuseum makes much of its collection available digitally in open access. They are searchable via the image search room of arthistoricum.net. The image data is available in Dutch, with keywords translated into German for better retrieval.
- Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum Braunschweig
The Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Braunschweig is the largest and most important art museum in the state of Lower Saxony and one of the most important museums of ancient art in northern Germany. The Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) comprises around 145,000 sheets of prints and over 11,000 drawings from the late Middle Ages to the present day. Since 2007, the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum has been operating the research portal Virtuelles Kupferstichkabinett together with the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel.
- Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel
The Herzog August Library holds a significant collection of graphic sheets, some of which are kept in bound volumes and others as individual sheets. The graphic collections date back to the collecting activities of members of the ducal family and librarians since the 16th century and comprise around 50,000 sheets. Since 2007, the the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel has been operating the research portal Virtuelles Kupferstichkabinett together with the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met)
Founded in 1872, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is the largest art museum in the United States and owns one of the most important art history collections in the world. Since 2017, the museum has made images and metadata of artworks that are not (or no longer) protected by copyright available in open access. A curated selection of around 200,000 images from a total of twelve collection areas can be searched in the arthistoricum.net image search.
- Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections)
The Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden comprises 15 museums that are among the formost museums in the world. As part of the museum network, the porcelain collection in the Dresden Zwinger with its extensive holdings of East Asian porcelain is represented in the image search room with around 35,000 images. These are views of around 8,000 pieces from the royal collection of Augustus the Strong, which were scientifically catalogued and processed by an international team of experts between 2014 and 2024. All results are published in the digital catalogue The Royal Dresden Porcelain Collection.
- Department of Prints and Drawings and Photo Archive, Zentral
Founded in 1854, the special collection is one of the most important collections of regional and cultural-historical images in Switzerland. It comprises one million drawings, prints, photographs, postcards, paintings and sculptures from the 15th to the 21st century. The views and portraits form the two major focal points of the collection. Smaller thematic collections include printing plates, broadsheets, bookplates, festive depictions, history sheets, caricatures and disc cracks. Various bequests and donations from artists enrich the profile of the Prints and Drawings Department with a representative collection of Zurich art from the 19th-21st centuries.