Art history is a vast discipline, geographically, historically, and intellectually. In its initial centuries, art history dealt with Western art, but the boundaries of the field have since expanded. Traditional emphases on European art have been reduced, as the discipline reaches world-wide dimensions in which connections as much as differences have increasingly come into focus. Originating as a study much informed by ancient art, and then by the art of the Renaissance, the historical dimension of the discipline has also continuously advanced with time. In the past half century art historians have also engaged more and more with questions of theory, method, and the history of the discipline. Oxford Bibliographies in Art History responds to these needs and offers a trustworthy pathway through the thicket of information overload.
