With its Digital Art History Lab DAHL, the Frick Art Reference Library seeks to encourage the use of digital tools in art historical inquiry. By providing datasets, workshops, and access to tools, the DAHL hopes to facilitate collaboration between art historians and scholars from a variety of fields. The datasets presented here are from the Montias Database and have not been modified or augmented.
In the 1980s, Yale University Professor John Michael Montias began compiling the art inventories of residents of Amsterdam in the seventeenth century. Montias shared this invaluable resource with the Frick Art Reference Library to maximize its access to other scholars. The Montias Database comprises 1,280 inventories dated between 1597 and 1681; it records 51,071 individual works of art. Since Montias’s gift, art historians have accessed the data in a user-friendly, searchable format on the Frick’s website. However, the online database is ill-suited for data visualization and analysis. The Montias Database is presented here in the form of CSV and JSON files to encourage new academic projects.
The database is presented in two files: art objects and inventories. The 1,280 Inventories from the Gemeente Archief, listed by inventory number and date, include information on the owners’ lives, the appraisers, some original text in seventeenth-century Dutch, and additional commentary by Montias. The art database includes provenance, artists, and auction information for the 51,071 works of art. In addition, it contains prices for individual objects, making it possible to analyze values. The markdown file fieldnames.md should help guide users through the database’s fieldnames, abbreviations, and identifiers to improve ease of access.
These datasets are placed in the public domain using a CC0 License.
While this dataset is open under a CC0 license, we have included a few guidelines we encourage you to follow when using this data.
While we have worked hard to provide a complete dataset, the information included in this dataset may not be complete or accurate. We are offering the datasets as-is and wish to make no warranties or representations of any kind. If you encounter any errors or issues, please get in touch with us at dahlprograms@frick.org. We plan to update the datasets with new and revised information semi-regularly. Therefore, you are advised to update your copy regularly to ensure you are using the best available information.
We cannot accept pull requests for the data at this time. However, if you find a mistake or have a correction or a suggestion for improvement, please contact dahlprograms@frick.org.
When possible, the Frick respectfully requests acknowledgment as a source. This will help to preserve the datasets. Additionally, by citing our data and providing acknowledgment, you will help others to replicate, verify, and further explore your interpretation of our data.
Additionally, please share your work with us! We love seeing how people are using this data.
Use of this dataset does not grant or imply The Frick Collection’s approval, commission, or support of your work. The Frick Collection retains the rights to all of its trademarks, and they are not part of the dataset. If you transform or modify the dataset, you must clearly distinguish the resulting work as having been modified from The Frick Collection’s dataset. If you create a derivative dataset from the Frick dataset, we ask that you consider releasing the derivative under a CC0 license, which mirrors the licensing of the Frick dataset.
Thanks to the CMOA, MoMA, and Tate for providing excellent examples for these guidelines.