ICONOGRAPHIC THESAURUS: A KEY TO SUBJECT RETRIEVAL IN PICTORIAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS

As an iconographic thesaurus, ICONCLASS can play a very important role in the design of pictorial information systems. In its research programme on image-based information systems, the Department of Computers & Humanities at Utrecht University pays special attention to ICONCLASS, because this classification system can be employed as a vital part in a broad category of pictorial information systems. Our research has already demonstrated that the conversion of the printed ICONCLASS volumes into a computer-assisted edition is in every way possible. Linked with a database of pictures, the Browser offers the user previously unknown possibilities but as a stand-alone browser it is an equally valuable tool for (art-)historical research. Our first prototype of a pictorial information system, produced as a CD-ROM of ‘Dutch Printer's Devices’, shows that ICONCLASS can also be employed as a very powerful data-retrieval system.