Commons:Structured data/Modeling/Illustrations

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This page is a work in progress page, not an article or policy, and may be incomplete and/or unreliable.
Please offer suggestions on the talk page.

This page collects and refines best practices for describing illustrations contained in other works, such as books, periodicals or other printed matter. For example, the image File:The Chaldean Account of Genesis (1876) - illustration - page after 306.png is contained within the book with digital item File:The Chaldean Account of Genesis (1876).djvu.

An important facet of the illustration ontology is that a given file can be both:

  • an representation of the instance of an artwork, contained in a given edition of a book
  • a version of another artwork, of which the original illustration is a reproduction

Best practices

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Illustrations without Wikidata item

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This section describes some best practices for illustrations that are not notable enough to have their own Wikidata item. This is the usual case, as few illustrations merit their own Wikidata item.

For an illustration in a book or periodical, there should be a Wikidata item for the edition in question (i.e. instance of (P31)version, edition or translation (Q3331189)). The illustration is then associated with that edition via published in (P1433).

Illustrations should not be "published in" works: a specific illustration comes from a specific edition.

List of properties

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Less common, but possible properties:

Standard SDC properties

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Anonymous illustrations

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Illustrations are often anonymously produced by artists working for publishers, so an anonymous creator (P170) is a common occurrence.

In this case, the creator (P170) claim should be set to some value using the drop down button:

You can add other qualifiers to this creator (P170) claim, some examples are given at Wikidata's WikiProject Visual arts.

Illustrations of an artwork with Wikidata item

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Often, the image published in a book is some kind of reproduction of an artwork well-known enough to have its own Wikidata item:

  • Wikidata item (of the original artwork)
    • image (P18) - points to Commons image file, which may, or may not, be this version
    • depicts (P180) - holds depiction statements
    • Other properties as in the "without Wikidata" case, as long as they refer to the original image, not only this version of it. These properties are applied to the Wikidata entity itself, not the file at Commons
  • Commons file

Illustrations with its own Wikidata item

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It is relatively uncommon for a specific published reproduction of an image to have its own Wikidata item, but it's possible for, for example, very famous manuscripts.

Broadly, this is the same as above, except that the information specific to this version of the image, such as the page numbering, caption, etc., also goes at Wikidata.

  • Wikidata item (of this version of the artwork)
    • image (P18) - points to Commons image file
    • depicts (P180) - holds depiction statements
    • page(s) (P304), folio(s) (P7416), etc - the location of the image in the containing work
    • Other properties as in the "without Wikidata" case, but these properties are applied to the Wikidata entity itself, not the file at Commons
  • Commons file
    • digital representation of (P6243) - points to Wikidata item (see above)
    • depicts (P180) - points to Wikidata item (see above) - No further P180 statements
    • All other properties belong at Wikidata, since the Wikidata item refers to this specific version of the image

Examples

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(list files below that provide best practices on how to model various situations)

Simple, uncredited illustration

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Engraved "plate"

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