Since 2009, an interdisciplinary project between computer vision and art history is embedded within the Computer Vision group of Heidelberg University. Jointly, the group has carried out various tasks on diverse image corpora, including manuscripts, architectural drawings, religious artworks, or photographs, which have been enabled by, for example, an interactive interface developed by the group. Tasks are related to object detection, form analysis and iconography. This is of major use for art historians, since their work is concerned,

for example, with the iconography of the enthroned Madonna (see Holbein) and its depiction in the history of art or tries to find recurrences of objects and figures in various paintings, thereby addressing reception history. Did Bruegel repeatedly depict a figure or object in his famous Wimmelbilder? And do we find similar motifs in other works by different artists? Computer-based methods, as established by the group, assist with answering these questions.

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The following sites  provide an overview over past and present works, including interfaces, object detection, form analysis and iconography.