Skip to content
Back Home
Smarthistory Logo
  • About
      • ABOUT SMARTHISTORY
      • What is Smarthistory?
      • Who is Smarthistory?
      • Is Smarthistory reliable?
      • Museum and institutional partners
      • Major donors
      • Press coverage
      • Our blog
      • Give us feedback
      • Contact us

      • At Smarthistory, the Center for Public Art History, we believe art has the power to transform lives and to build understanding across cultures. We believe that the brilliant histories of art belong to everyone, no matter their background.

        With 503 contributors from 201 colleges, universities, museums, and research centers, Smarthistory is the most-visited art history resource in the world.

  • For Learning
      • ART HISTORIES
      • Start here
      • Prehistoric
      • Africa
      • Americas
      • Asia
      • Ancient Mediterranean + Europe
      • Medieval Europe + Byzantine
      • The Islamic World
      • Europe 1300–1800
      • Europe 1800–1900
      • Pacific Islands
      • Modernisms 1900–1980
      • Art since 1980
      • TOPICS & COURSES
      • Art Appreciation
      • AP® Art History
      • A-Level Art History
      • History of photography
      • Creating and conserving
      • Understanding museums
      • Oppression and resistance in art
      • Illness, plagues, and pandemics in art
      • See all short courses
      • SPECIAL PROJECTS
      • The U.S. Civil War in Art
      • Seeing America
      • ARCHES: At-risk Cultural Heritage
      • Expanding the Renaissance
      • Across Cultures
      • Virtual Visits
  • Books
      • SMARTHISTORY BOOKS
      • Reframing Art History, a new kind of textbook
      • Guide to Byzantine Art
      • Guide to Ancient Roman Art
      • Guide to AP® Art History vol. 1 (#1–47)
      • Guide to AP® Art History vol. 2 (#48–98)
      • Guide to AP® Art History vol. 3 (#99–152)
      • See complete collection of titles
      • NEW TITLES
        • reframing art history cover smReframing Art History
          a new kind of textbook
        • Byzantine cover jpgGuide to Byzantine art
  • For Teaching
      • TOOLS FOR TEACHING
      • All content for teaching
      • Webinars past & present
      • Teaching with images: K-12
      • Syllabi
      • Do-it-yourself tools
        • UPCOMING EVENT
          • Dr. Elena FitzPatrick Sifford on casta paintings

            Check back for upcoming events

        • PAST EVENT
          • Dr. Elena FitzPatrick Sifford on casta paintings

            Apr.06.2022

            The Kaaba with Dr. Nancy Demerdash

  • Support
      • SUPPORT SMARTHISTORY
      • Donate
      • Contribute an essay

      • We created Smarthistory to provide students around the world with the highest-quality educational resources for art and cultural heritage—for free.

  • Search
Search

All Results

Generic filters
Search in excerpt
Search

over here

Tools for understanding art

by Beth Harris
Cite this page as: Beth Harris, "Tools for understanding art," in Smarthistory, November 15, 2015, accessed February 1, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/tools-for-understanding-art/.

Flickr IconBrowse Smarthistory images for teaching & learning! 

Sign up for our newsletter!

Receive occasional emails about new Smarthistory content.

Have you seen our new "textbook"?

minimize arrow icon close icon

Reframing Art History—it's free!

more than 50 chapters

developed by more than 50 experts

Check it out!
NEW! The art of the viceroyalty of New Spain Close

Smarthistory is a nonprofit organization

At Smarthistory we believe art has the power to transform lives and to build understanding across cultures. We believe that the brilliant histories of art belong to everyone, no matter their background. Smarthistory’s free, award-winning digital content unlocks the expertise of hundreds of leading scholars, making the history of art accessible and engaging to more people, in more places, than any other publisher.

  • Donate
  • Contact Us
facebook icon
twitter icon
instagram icon
youtube icon
flickr icon
  • About Smarthistory
  • Smarthistory’s blog
  • Contribute an essay
  • Content editors and contributors

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

· © 2023 Smarthistory · Powered by · Designed with the Customizr theme ·