AI and Artworks: Object Detection, Image Classification and Iconographic Analysis

Session

Augmented Data

16 Apr 2026, 11:30

Seminar room 1&2 (Postsparkasse)

29. Beyond Vision: Metadata-Augmented AI for Iconclass Classification in Medieval Manuscripts

Dr Drew Thomas (University of Salzburg), Ms Julia Hintersteiner (University of Salzburg)

16/04/2026, 11:30

Talk

This paper presents a practical approach to applying the Iconclass system to medieval manuscript imagery by combining image analysis with existing textual metadata. Building on our earlier large-language-model (LLM) pipeline for assigning Iconclass codes to early modern woodcuts, we extend the method to the Wenzelsbibel, a richly illuminated fourteenth-century German Bible.
The project tests...

11. Digital Iconology. Classification and Association in Visual Knowledge Systems

Charles van den Heuvel (University of Amsterdam / Huygens Institute), Etienne Posthumus (FIZ Karlsruhe), Hans Brandhorst (ICONCLASS)

16/04/2026, 11:50

Talk

Almost every art historian has heard of Iconclass. Less known is that the creator of Iconclass, Henri van de Waal (1910-1972) for the greater part of his life worked on another classification of the arts, with the title: “Beeldleer” (Iconology). It was intended as a tool for “iconological exploration” for mapping still uncharted territories of the arts. In line with Aby Warburg and his...

12. Exploring AI Approaches on Image Data Mining in Collections of the Austrian National Library

Carla Maria Schnedlitz (Austrian National Library), Christoph Steindl (Austrian National Library), Johannes Knüchel (Austrian National Library), Simon Mayer (Austrian National Library)

16/04/2026, 12:10

Talk

“Reading Images, Writing Metadata” is an ongoing project by the Austrian National Library (ONB) which is aiming towards enriching metadata using various Computer Vision techniques, including AI models and Machine Learning, on a diverse collection of graphics and images.

The pictures and graphics available in the online portal ONB Digital are to be made more accessible through automatic...