The Index of Christian Art (ICA) is the most extensive collection of images and full-text records of Christian works of art dating from early apostolic times to A.D. 1400. The Internet database of the ICA provides access to over 60,000 images in color and black and white of over 20,000 works of art, many uniquely published in digitized format in the ICA. A relevant bibliography and a full-text description, giving detailed information on the artist, location, date, artistic style, etc., accompany each work of art. The cost is $1,500 a year.
Value across disciplines
The ICA would be of particular interest to all those students and faculty in the English Department who are working in pre-modern fields. More broadly, for those teaching in later fields, such as 18th-century or Victorian literature, the ICA could provide a valuable historical perspective and visual background materials that richly inform these later time periods. Other faculty who could usefully mine this resource, especially in teaching, would be those working in film studies, new media, or visual literacies. Outside of English, faculty and students in such diverse humanities disciplines as Art History, Archeology, Religious Studies, Philosophy, History, Women's and Gender Studies, Classics, Sociology, Anthropology, and any of the European languages could benefit greatly from the ICA.
Access
In most fields nowadays, computer-accessibility is key to getting students to use resources. The ICA would be accessible to students on computers at the library, on campus, and in their homes.
Searchability
The database is fully searchable with the help of 150 overall search categories, 27, 165 subject terms, and up to 50 classification fields per work. The ICA is continually updated and previously collected images and information are still being digitized and added to the collection.
