On Friday, October 25, the Museum closes at 6 p.m. and the Law Building is closed all day. 

Research Guides


Need to conduct research on a work of art in the Museum's collections? Try starting with one of the library's research guides. Especially targeted to beginning students of art history, these guides help identify published sources related to works from the MFAH art collections and general art topics.

The research guides listed below are available for download in PDF format.

Arts of Africa, Oceania, & the Americas


• Kneeling Woman Nursing a Baby [Mesoamerican, Jalisco]

• Incense Burner (Incensario) Lid [Mesoamerican, Teotihuacan]

• Tripod Vase with Bird Handles [Mesoamerican, Ulúa]

Antiquities


• Coffin of Pedi-Osiris [Egyptian]

• Model Boat [Egyptian]

• Pharaoh Ramesses II Enthroned [Egyptian]

• Eagle-Headed Apkallu [Assyrian]

• Grave Stele [Greek]

• Grave Stele for a Woman [Greek]

• Hattatt Painter - Amphora with Scene from the "Iliad" [Greek]

• Head of Poseidon / Antigonos Doson [Greek]

• Painter of the Yale Oinochoe - Red Figure Hydria [Greek]

• Syriskos Painter - Red Figure Column Krater [Greek]

Heroic Figure [Roman]

• Torso of Aphrodite [Roman]

• Imperial Portrait of the Emperor Caligula [Roman]

• Indian Triumph of Dionysus [Roman]

• Musical Contest between Apollo and Marsyas [Roman]

Arts of Asia


• Ritual Vessel (Ding) [Chinese]

• Ganesh and Siddhi [Indian]

• Shiva Nataraja [Indian]

• Vishnu and His Avatars [Indian]

• Koei - Amida [Japanese]

• Standing Buddha [Thai]

European Art


• Claudio Coello - Saint Michael the Archangel [Spanish]

• François Pascal Simon Gérard - Portrait of Louise-Antoinette-Scholastique Guéhéneuc, Madame la Maréchale Lannes, Duchesse de Montebello, with Her Children [French]

• Master of the Straus Madonna - Virgin and Child [Italian]

• Scarsellino - Virgin and Child with Saints [Italian]

• Rogier van der Weyden - The Virgin and Child [Netherlandish]

General Guides


• Objects in the Museum’s Permanent Collection

• Research on a Contemporary Artist

• Color & Pigment

• Pre-Columbian, Mesoamerican Art & Artifacts