Catalog Entries and Databases

Lucy Vivante — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 20:25:55 +0000

If we were collecting drawings centuries ago, at least in Italy, we would probably have assembled our drawings as Padre Sebastiano Resta (1653 – 1714) had–using albums and writing pertinent information right by the drawings. A major drawback of keeping drawings in albums, or laid down on mounts, is that a good many drawings are double-sided and by pasting drawings down, you lose one side. (Discovering that you have another drawing on the verso of a laid down drawing is similar to the thrill of discovering that there are two layers to the chocolate box.)

Padre Sebastiano Resta | Libro d'Arabeschi | Album of Drawings | Biblioteca Comunale | Palermo

Most people now keep their drawings in mats and information is stored apart. FileMaker Pro and Access are two databases that can be used for storing this type of information. Since I’m always worried about losing information, whether by corrupted programs or computer failure, it would be wonderful if one could use Google docs to keep all the information together, both fields and images. This would be useful for accessing information from computers at libraries and anywhere. Once I finish this post, I’m going to write to suggest the idea to Google.

The following is a list of possible fields for catalog entries or fact sheets.

Creation Place
School
Century
Artist’s Name
Birth Place
Birth Date
Death Date
Death Place
Image Recto
Title Recto
Date of Work
Media Recto
Insciption Recto
Image Verso
Title Verso
Date of Work
Media Verso
Inscription Verso
Carrier/Drawing Support
Size in Millimeters/Inches
Watermark Image
Watermark Reference
Inventory Number
Acquired from
Date
Price
Provenance
Lugt Image
Lugt Number
Exhibitions
Bibliography – Real
Bibliography – Related
Notes/Correspondence

Vivante Drawings » provenance

Catalog Entries and Databases