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Quantitative Art History

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lightbulbAbout this topic
Quantitative Art History is an interdisciplinary field that applies statistical and computational methods to the analysis of art and visual culture. It seeks to uncover patterns, trends, and relationships in art through numerical data, enhancing traditional art historical methodologies with empirical evidence and quantitative analysis.
lightbulbAbout this topic
Quantitative Art History is an interdisciplinary field that applies statistical and computational methods to the analysis of art and visual culture. It seeks to uncover patterns, trends, and relationships in art through numerical data, enhancing traditional art historical methodologies with empirical evidence and quantitative analysis.

Key research themes

1. How can computational and stochastic methods quantify and analyze the complexity and stylistic evolution in art history?

This theme focuses on leveraging mathematical, stochastic, and information-theoretic models to objectively quantify visual complexity, capture stylistic signatures, and understand the evolution of artistic styles. It aims to transcend subjective aesthetic judgments by employing quantitative tools such as normalized compression, stochastic 2D tools (e.g., climacograms), and multivariate compression ensembles to analyze large datasets of artworks. These methodologies allow for the detection of clusters, artist fingerprints, and style transitions, thereby offering new empirical foundations for art historical analysis and classification.

Key finding: This study applied stochastic 2D methodologies to Da Vinci's and Picasso's paintings, revealing that their artworks exhibit non-white-noise clustered patterns of quantified attributes, indicating high complexity similar to... Read more
Key finding: By estimating the Hurst parameter via 2D climacograms on portrait paintings from various art movements, this paper quantified variability linked directly to philosophical and cultural traits of each style. It showed... Read more
Key finding: This paper compared normalized compression (NC) and Block Decomposition Method (BDM) information-theoretic measures across 4,266 paintings by 91 authors, illustrating that complexity measures capture stylistic relationships... Read more
Key finding: Introducing a novel compression ensemble approach involving multiple image transformations and compressions, this paper empirically modeled multidimensional aesthetic complexity in 125,000 artworks. The method aligned with... Read more

2. How can digital and machine learning tools, including computer vision and neural networks, aid in the classification, visualization, and cultural understanding of art historical styles and artist networks?

This research focus investigates the application of state-of-the-art computational techniques like convolutional neural networks (CNNs), deep learning, and graph/network visualizations to classify artworks by style, artist, or period with computational rigor and interpretability. It explores how machine-generated style representations correlate with art-historical concepts and how large-scale datasets (e.g., WikiArt) can be used for visual cultural analytics and network visualizations of artistic influence, thus linking art historical inquiry with modern AI methodologies.

Key finding: Using state-of-the-art CNNs on 77K paintings, this paper uncovered that learned machine representations can arrange artworks temporally and recognize style transitions without explicit time input, while correlating visual... Read more
Key finding: This work released vectorial representations of styles and colors derived from deep learning and perceptually uniform color spaces on the WikiArt dataset, enabling aggregated cultural and historical analysis across artists,... Read more
Key finding: This research demonstrated the use of VOSviewer for visualizing large networks of 322 artists, differentiating creators and imitators and mapping their interrelations with geographic and temporal metadata. The tool’s density... Read more
Key finding: This study showed how PALLADIO visualizations can be used for network data of artists and imitators, supplemented by measures such as connectivity and dispersion indices. It translated art historical relational data into... Read more

3. How can quantification of compositional principles and the use of formal art elements reveal transcendent organizing principles and cultural evolution in art history?

This theme addresses the quantification of formal compositional rules and art elements (e.g., proportion, shape, line, color) to discern whether culturally and temporally transcendent principles underlie visual artworks. Studies employing information theory and formal analysis investigate the evolution of compositional proportions and art elements, revealing clusters and patterns that resonate with art historical taxonomy and questioning the universality of aesthetic canons while emphasizing formal aesthetics as analytic scaffolds in art history.

Key finding: Using an information-theoretic framework on 14,912 landscape paintings spanning Western art historiography, this study demonstrated systematic evolution in preferred compositional proportions over time. Network analyses of... Read more
Key finding: This study examined how artists consciously and unconsciously employ fundamental art elements—line, color, form, space—as the building blocks of composition. By formalizing these elements, it elucidated how variations in... Read more
Key finding: This paper also discussed how historic canons of proportion and geometry relate to perceived beauty and form in art, highlighting how artists like Leonardo and Picasso incorporated mathematical principles. It situated... Read more
Key finding: This philosophical treatment analyzed why evaluative criteria differ across art forms and cultures, emphasizing the role of divergent cultural learning regimes shaped through independent developmental origins. Although... Read more

All papers in Quantitative Art History

Thanks to a critical reading of Pierre Bourdieu’s book, Manet, une révolution symbolique (2013), the author presents the complex genesis of the two parts composing the volume (the lectures at the Collège de France and the unpublished... more
Dans le cadre de la 9e édition des Rencontres des Études Africaines en France, qui se tiendront à Aubervilliers (Campus Condorcet) du 29 juin au 2 juillet 2026, nous organisons un atelier dédié à la discipline histoire de l'art appliquée... more
Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour Éditions Ligeia. © Éditions Ligeia. Tous droits réservés pour tous pays. La reproduction ou représentation de cet article, notamment par photocopie, n'est autorisée que dans les limites des... more
Assistenza sociale e reinserimento lavorativo nel Trentino. Il caso dei mutilati e invalidi di guerra (1918-1922) Introduzione. Un difficile dopoguerra Al termine del primo conflitto mondiale, il territorio trentino che si affacciava... more
In this personal, polemical, and ad hoc response to papers given at the Spaces of Arts conference at Purdue University in September, 2012, Lubin identifies potential problem areas for geographical and digital art history. He admonishes... more
In this personal, polemical, and ad hoc response to papers given at the Spaces of Arts conference at Purdue University in September, 2012, Lubin identifies potential problem areas for geographical and digital art history. He admonishes... more
Mise en oeuvre éditoriale et organisationnelle : Rossella Cillani. Entrée libre dans la limite des places disponibles.
Статья посвящена осмыслению трансформации методологии исторической науки под влиянием «цифрового поворота», с фокусом на ключевую дисциплину ‒ источниковедение. Автор исследует, как стремительное развитие технологий искусственного... more
Рассматривается методологический аспект использования данных в историческом исследовании. В контексте датаизма представлены дискуссии об особенностях формализации сведений исторических источников в моделях данных. Сегодня в дискуссиях о... more
Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d'auteur. L'utilisation des services d'Érudit (y compris la reproduction) est assujettie à sa politique d'utilisation que vous pouvez consulter en ligne. Cet article est diffusé et préservé... more
Réflexions sur ce qu'est une frontières? Elles sont arbitraires !

Qui décident du tracé? Qu'elle est son épaisseur?

Qui a le droit de les franchir?
Joint book review on the global politics of Abstract Expressionism, gesturalism, and gender in postwar art, recently published in the Spring/Summer 2025 issue of Woman’s Art Journal.
[Deadline: oct. 2025] Ce colloque fait l’hypothèse qu’une genèse sur le temps long est susceptible d’éclairer les tendances et les conflits actuels portant sur la définition de l’expertise en éducation, ses modalités notamment... more
Tesi triennale in Storia Contemporanea del CdL in Filosofia discussa all'Università di Bologna il 2 luglio 2024. La Grande guerra è sempre stata oggetto di molta attenzione storiografica. Ciò su cui invece pare evidente una mancanza... more
L’intégration des arts aux structures universitaires et à l’enseignement supérieur soulève un ensemble de questions à propos de l'institutionnalisation de l’art, de la professionnalisation des artistes et de la socialisation des arts et... more
Après presqu’un siècle d’oubli, Le Pont de l’Europe et son pendant Rue de Paris, temps de pluie, que Gustave Caillebotte a présentés au public en 1877, occupent désormais une place privilégiée dans l’œuvre de l’artiste et sont devenus des... more
Глава 6 Компьютерный анализ текста из монографии Цифровые гуманитарные исследования
I would like to acknowledge the many people who have made this thesis possible. Thank you to the members of my thesis committee who attended my colloquium: Dr.
This paper develops a material history of Art Nouveau with reference to the ceramic façade of André Arfvidson’s block of artists’ studios at 31 rue Campagne-Première, Paris (1911). Tracking the constituent element of this façade (glazed... more
En 1964 était fondé le Comité français d'histoire de l'art (CFHA). Mais cette date marque surtout un renouveau de l'histoire de l'art en France, tant à l'université que dans le domaine du patrimoine. Soixante ans plus tard, à l'occasion... more
Ce colloque vise à explorer les effets des circulations culturelles transatlantiques dans les parcours individuels et collectifs des artistes femmes (XVIIIe-XXIe siècles) dans les divers domaines de la création (cinéma, littérature, arts... more
Le Cadre Informa onnel : Une Réalité en 3 Dimensions L'informa on s'impose aujourd'hui comme un concept central, au coeur des recherches les plus fondamentales comme des développements technologiques les plus avancés. Le paradigme... more
À partir du xix e siècle, Sulina fascine par ses caractéristiques centrales et périphériques, évoluant d’un petit village de pêcheurs à un établissement florissant du point de vue économique et commercial, attirant de nouveaux colons du... more
In this personal, polemical, and ad hoc response to papers given at the Spaces of Arts conference at Purdue University in September, 2012, Lubin identifies potential problem areas for geographical and digital art history. He admonishes... more
In this personal, polemical, and ad hoc response to papers given at the Spaces of Arts conference at Purdue University in September, 2012, Lubin identifies potential problem areas for geographical and digital art history. He admonishes... more
Claire Dupin de Beyssat, L'indispensable livret de Salon ? Usages et concurrences des catalogues des Expositions de peinture et de sculpture au xix e siècle 15 Camille Philippon, Les catalogues d'exposition de galerie et la critique d'art... more
L'épistémologie est un domaine clé de la philosophie qui s'intéresse à la nature, aux origines et aux limites de la connaissance. Ce terme, qui vient du grec "epistêmê" (connaissance) et "logos" (étude), désigne littéralement l'étude de... more
This essay attempts to understand to what extent, and how, the term "Nouvelle Objectivité" (New Objectivity) is used in France to describe and understand the works of a number of German artists of the 1920s, to what extent it is... more
À propos de l'exposition Adel Abdessemed au Centre Pompidou, 2012-2013
Ce livre est une monographie inédite du peintre espagnol Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida 1863-1923 destinée aux universitaires et aux étudiants français. Le premier chapitre parle de l’enfant, de l’adolescent et du jeune adulte. Nous... more
La diatribe de Jean Clair contre le devenir actuel des musees est ici epinglee et reduite a ses attendus reactionnaires. Est-ce parce que les origines (...)
Mystery surrounds the origins of Fragonard's 'The swing', since its existence is not documented until 1782, fifteen years after it was painted. A conservation and research project undertaken at the Wallace Collection, London, has provided... more
In my dissertation, I examine the proliferation of artistic refl ections on the inhabited, travelled and lived space incontemporary art from the Arab world. In my thesis, I aim at identifying the reasons behind the incorporationand... more
The archives of the Commercial Court show that the White Russian entrepreneurship behind the success of the Russian Nights in Pigalle is partly legendary. A much more varied group of international corporations and foreign actors... more
Цифровая история идей — сравнительно молодое направление внутри Digital Humanities, использующее инструменты корпусной лингвистики в сочетании с методологией Кембриджской школы и Begriffsgeschichte. Как теоретические рамки, так и... more
Academic publication of papers by the Russian and foreign historians, archaeologists and ethnologists. The publication covers research on the topical issues of the Russian history in the civilizational and geopolitical dynamics, theories... more
Cartographier les rapports de force constitutifs du capitalisme mondial, en donnant une tournure figurative à des informations précises : ces ambitions rapprochent le travail d'Öyvind Fahlström, dans les années 60-70, de celui de Bureau... more
Tiré du site internet du blog des Musées d'art et d'histoire (http://blog.mahgeneve.ch): "La Cabane de Sainte-Adresse, huile sur toile de Claude Monet que l'on pouvait admirer il y a peu de temps encore sur les murs de la... more
Certainly future historians, bent on recapturing the life behind mid-twentieth-century American art, will read Rodman avidly. As avidly as, for example, students of Italian Renaissance paint- ing read Vasari. Of course Rodman does not... more
L'École de Paris est une importante mouvance de l'histoire de l'art au XX e siècle, très connue pour avoir compté en son sein des personnalités comme Chaïm Soutine et Amedeo Modigliani. Elle débute à Montparnasse avant la Première Guerre... more
Compilation of the pictorial works depicted on Willem van Haecht's “Workshop of Apelles”. The 'Kunstkammer' was created around 1630 and shows objects owned by Cornelis van der Geest and copies that Willem van Haecht made or acquired on... more
02_15-34_Emerging_from_Darkness_Life_in_the_Palace Life_in_the_Palace The essay in this section, 'Furnishing the Interior' is by Lisa Beaven. The essay 'Baroque Music' is by John Weretka.. "Emerging from Darkness: Faith Emotion and... more
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