The GESAH Graphic Art Ontology is designed for the inventory, classification and structured description of works on paper.
The ontology serves for the inventory, classification and structured description of works on paper. It is capable of mapping changing attributions to artists, complex events, such as the often multi-phase creation of an art work or its provenance history, as well as of recording inscriptions, collector's marks, and other features in a structured way. The goals are easy access to the material for the public, scholarly indexing by the specialist community and curatorial documentation by the preserving institution.
The ontology can be used to
- inventory works of art in a prints and drawings collection
- classify prints and drawings by object type, style, artistic landscape, subject category
- describe prints and drawings by physical criteria such as material, technique, measurements, state, state of preservation, collector's mark, watermark
- annotate prints and drawings with historical information (date, place, and persons of creation, production, edition, provenance events, and collection care)
- transcribe and classify inscriptions on sheets and backing
- record persons and organisations with their respective role types involved during the creation of a work or significant for the work's provenance and preservation history
- classify attributions and titles
- link digital representations
Probably questions that can be answered by GESAH Graphic Arts Ontology:
- Which German prints from before 1600 are part of the collection?
- Which Italian architectural drawings can be found in the collection?
- Which prints were issued in Antwerp?
- Which drawings were formerly attributed to Parmigianino?
- Which drawings and prints have a collector`s mark?
- Which drawings and prints were kept in the Collection of Hippolyte Destailleur (Paris)?
- Which drawings were kept under the former/current inventory no. (e.g. Albrecht Haupt’s folder numbered e.g. “XXXIIIa”)?
- Which drawings and prints depict the subject Adam and Eve?
An ontology paper is in preparation. Until then you can cite this ontology as:
Rubach, Birte; Walther, Tatiana (2023): GESAH Graphic Arts Ontology. https://github.com/tibonto/gesah