Chapter Five - Biographical Dictionaries: Dewey Class 703

Abstract

One of the major approaches to the study of the history of art is by way of biography. Art is essentially personal and there are few of its aspects which are not illuminated by the lives of individual artists or craftsmen. Exceptions are such subjects as Roman painting and medieval architecture; however, since the Renaissance, art has often been graphically chronicled in the lives of artists. Biographical dictionaries of artists, then, form important guides to the history of art. This chapter discusses the main general guides covering artists of different periods and countries and working in different media. The most important of the general biographical dictionaries and one of the most famous of art reference tools is the German work Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, edited by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker and published in Leipzig in 37 volumes, 1907–50; this is usually referred to as Thieme–Becker.