Methodology
Methodology version 0.20.20 · updated with this release
This network is machine-assisted. Artist identities, chronology, geography and relationships are reconciled from Getty ULAN, Wikidata, Wikipedia, VIAF and curated manual overrides; Fondazione Zeri is retained as an external research reference where available.
ULAN is the preferred authority for identity and formal relationship evidence. Manual relationships are explicitly curated edges. Wikipedia (BETA) is an optional, network-specific relationship source that can be switched on or off without deleting its stored results. Wikidata supports identity reconciliation and cached Wikipedia media links.
Manual curatorial additions may be previewed from ULAN before admission. Identity, layout year, graph region and tier are the only required placement fields; ULAN-derived values remain visible and manual corrections are explicit curatorial overrides. ULAN relationship rows are previewed before they are accepted.
Core is a curated 25-artist structural skeleton and is the default opening view. Expanded is a curated middle layer targeting about 80 total artists, retaining the foundational network and the strongest additional workshop/influence connectors. Comprehensive contains the remaining defensibly mapped records, including qualifying illuminators and peripheral masters. Tier, city and ULAN-role filters control visibility independently from artist selection, so hidden-tier relationships remain hidden even when an artist is selected.
Automated extraction can produce false matches, omissions, bad geography, duplicate identities or over-broad relationship classifications. Anonymous masters and proposed identities receive stricter reconciliation. For placement only, an unresolved pupil/workshop artist may inherit the documented region of a single unambiguous master/parent node; a chronology-only straggler may use a clearly marked workshop-neighbor layout year. These are layout inferences, not asserted biographical facts. Manual review can supersede machine-derived values.
The visualization is an exploratory research map, not a catalogue raisonné and not a definitive statement of attribution or influence.