Image Processing and Computer Vision in the Field of Art History: Overview, Challenges and Critical Inquiries.

Abstract

Art history is, to a large extent, the history of the forms and systems of production and circulation of images of cultural artifacts. If reader also consider that one of the central discourses of art history has made visual matter a primary subject of study, and, consequently, that vision has become one of the main cognitive mechanisms of art historians, it is easy to understand why one of the hopes for the field resides in image processing and computer vision technologies. Beyond these computer-aided practices, the introduction of image processing technologies in art history also enables reader to address issues that are part of the intellectual and critical concerns of the discipline and that are not alien to the methodologies that have guided the analysis of images since the early nineteenth century. Along with new research opportunities, the introduction of image processing algorithms and computer vision techniques entails significant intellectual challenges for art historians.