ABSTRACT
The academic discipline of art history is currently in a state of transition owing to the increasing integration of digital methods. Just like the digital humanities in general, art history makes use of databases, data analysis, and visualizations in order to support existing approaches to the history of art as well as to probe new opportunities for the field. While ambivalence remains in the larger community of art history, it is increasingly swept aside by the growing awareness that digital art history is a growing field that cannot be ignored. The object of art history is the history of art. That means, broadly, that scholars describe the development of human artistic production over time in its societal context and interdependencies with political history, social history, the history of media, etc. New technology, namely digital technology, has the potential to challenge long held beliefs about art production and its genealogy and to put old questions in new contexts.
