There are many places you can search to find information to provide you with historical context about artists, works of art, materials, media, technologies, and techniques. Below are a few of the biggest and best databases (online searchable collections) to try.
Contains indexes and abstracts of art-related books, conference proceedings and dissertations, exhibition and dealer's catalogs, and articles from 1975 to 2007. Includes coverage of its two predecessor art indexes: RAA (Répertoire d'Art et d'Archéologie) from 1973 to 1989 and RILA (Répertoire International de la Littérature de l'Art) from 1975 to 1989. For material published after 2007 see the International Bibliography of Art.
The International Bibliography of Art (IBA) is the successor to the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA), and includes the most recent index records that were created by the Getty Research Institute as part of BHA.
Historical Abstracts with Full Text covers world history from 1450 to the present, excluding the United States and Canada. Coverage is very broad and takes in many areas including: religion, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, political science, the arts, law, education and geneology. Published since 1954.
JSTOR contains fulltext academic journals in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Sciences. JSTOR provides complete journal backruns from the date of initial publication up to a date defined, on a publisher by publisher basis, by a "moving wall". The moving wall is a fixed period of time ranging, in most cases, from 2 to 5 years, that defines the gap between the most recently published issue and the date of the most recent issues available in JSTOR.