Slice library at the Department of art history

University of Salzburg

Salzburg | Website

Short Description

The image laboratory consists of the image collection and the slide collection.
The collection of illustrations includes about 50,000 illustrations of works of art from early Christianity to the 20th century. It is only roughly sorted by content and not inventoried in detail. Most of the collection comes from the archives of the Archdiocese of Salzburg. Only after the inventory will it be possible to foresee the extent to which the collection is a document of collecting, i.e. the history of art history, and to what extent it can also be used in teaching – be it as illustrative material, or as a source for specialist history.
The slide collection consists of 51 slide cabinets with capacities between 4,000 and 12,000 pieces, slide projectors and viewing devices for slides as well as a PC workstation for administrative tasks and slide labeling. The slides are arranged according to epochs, genres and artists, fixed monuments or architecture are arranged as far as possible by artists, otherwise topographically. In addition, there is a collection that is arranged according to iconographic motifs. Each slide is labeled accordingly.

Contact Person

Prof. Dr. Renate Prochno-Schinkel

Research Services

Research on the historical perception of works of art and architecture
Researching a part of educational history
Researching the teaching of art history at universities
Research on a canon of art history
Slide collection, historical photographs of artworks and architecture

Methods & Expertise for Research Infrastructure

The image laboratory is used for research and teaching. It provides image material that is sometimes no longer available in any other form. In addition, the range of images is constantly being expanded and supplemented by the incorporation of donations. The slides are valuable testimonies of art history, as they document the history of the perception of art. In addition, some of the works preserved in slides or their condition are available in better optical quality than in digital copies. The slide collection is also a testimony to the collection of art illustrations. The selection of works thus depicts the history of teaching, is a part of the history of taste, and thus an important source for research into the history of education. Even the inscriptions of the slides are part of this documentation, this piece of the history of science.