Q. Hello! I am providing guidance to art history students on creating bibliography and note entries and have a few questions that I’m not sure of the answer to: (1) How would one style the name Hans Holbein the Younger in a bibliography entry? (2) When a work of art doesn’t have a title and is simply a description, I assume it would be in sentence case and not italicized, but is this correct? For instance, this glass ribbed bowl at the Met. (3) I assume for guesstimate dates “ca.” would be preferred, but would “18th century” or “Edo period” be acceptable?
A. (1) For an item in a bibliography attributed to Hans Holbein the Younger, invert the name as “Holbein, Hans, the Younger.” (2) Yes, sentence case would be appropriate for a description in lieu of a title:
Glass ribbed bowl. 1st century BCE. Cast, tooled, and cut. Height 2 9⁄16 in. (6.5 cm), diameter 5 7⁄16 in. (13.8 cm). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Object no. 17.194.197.
(3) Yes, a specific century or named era, if known, can be used instead of “ca.” (about), which usually applies to a more specific date such as a year. In some cases, it will be appropriate to combine a named period with an estimated date (e.g., Edo period, ca. 1800).