Dmiiart online: how to view, find and use images of artworks

An independent reference about artworks on the internet. It is not the website of a museum or cultural institution, does not sell tickets or reproductions, and is not connected with the former website on this domain.

Glossary

Glossary of terms

Descriptions in online collections and the terms on websites are written in a language of their own. Here are the concepts you will meet most often — brief and without unnecessary theory, so that object records and terms of use are easier to read.

An inventory number is duller than a title, but it does not change when researchers rename the object.

— Editors' view

How this section works: the definitions are deliberately simplified. For legal decisions, check the text of the law that applies to you; for academic work, consult specialist literature.

Collections and records

Museum object
An item accepted into a museum collection and formally registered. Its storage and study are governed by special rules.
State Catalogue of the Museum Fund
A national register in Russia into which, under Federal Law No. 54-FZ, information about objects of the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation is entered.
Inventory number
An object's registration number in a collection. It helps to distinguish it unambiguously from similar items.
Dating
When an object was made: an exact year, a period or a century. It is often given approximately.
Provenance
The ownership history of an object: where it comes from and whose hands it passed through before entering the collection.

Images

Resolution
The number of pixels that make up an image. The higher it is, the further you can zoom in without losing detail.
Colour accuracy
How closely the colours in a photo and on screen match those of the object. It depends on the lighting, the camera and the monitor settings.
Colour chart
A set of reference colour and grey patches photographed next to an object so that the colour can be corrected later.
Metadata
Information stored inside a file: the date taken, the device, sometimes the location, the author and the terms of use.
Virtual tour
A set of panoramic photos of galleries that you can move through on screen as if walking through a real building.

Rights

Exclusive right (copyright)
The rights holder's right to decide how a work is used. Under Russian law it generally lasts for the author's lifetime plus 70 years; terms vary by country.
Public domain
The status of a work once its copyright term has expired: it can be used freely, but the author should be credited.
Open licence
Permission that the rights holder grants to everyone in advance, on terms they specify.
CC BY
One of the Creative Commons licences: it permits use on condition that you credit the author.
Attribution
A caption for an image giving the author, title, source and terms of use.
  • Guides

    Practical guides: how to find, check, caption and lawfully use an image of an artwork. The article catalogue is here too.

  • Tools

    The kinds of tools available: online collections, reverse image search, zoomable viewers, scanners, colour charts and metadata.

  • Comparisons

    Scan or photo, online collection or search result, open licence or public domain — a comparison of what really matters.

  • Questions

    Answers about this reference, about images of artworks on the internet and the rights attached to them.

  • Object records (in Russian)

    The old address of the collection section: what a museum object record contains and how to cite it.

Sources

  • Civil Code of the Russian Federation (arts. 1281, 1282)
  • Russian Federal Law No. 54-FZ
  • Creative Commons — licence descriptions (in general terms)

Information on copyright terms, the public domain, open licences and the registration of museum objects was checked against the texts of the laws and the licence descriptions as of the date this page was prepared. The legal points refer to Russian law; terms and exceptions differ from country to country, so check the rules where you live. Online collections and image viewers work differently on different websites, so we describe them in general terms.