prometheus is a distributed digital image archive that currently makes more than 3,913,000 images of over 125 databases from institutes, research facilities and museums researchable on a common user interface.

Situated at the Institute of Art History of the University of Cologne, prometheus is supported by the non-profit association prometheus e.V. which promotes the ongoing developments of the digital media for science and research.



Image series of the week

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Meissen Porcelain
A Luxury Item in GDR Times – Despite the contradiction between socialist ideology and feudal luxury goods, the traditional Meissen porcelain manufactory continued to exist in the GDR and developed further. | more...


News

The BURG Archive is integrated

17 November 2025 | By: Corinna

New to prometheus is an image database from Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle with 3,296 records. The archive holds a unique collection of images documenting the history of BURG, its artistic works, people, and events. It includes black-and-white negatives by former university photographer Karl August Harnisch, which he produced on behalf of BURG between 1959 and 1997, mainly on 9 × 12 cm glass plates. These document the artistic and creative work produced at BURG and provide an insight into the development of art and design in the GDR. The glass plates were digitized in one project and entered into the archive database with the corresponding metadata.

More: +++ Do you want to use the image archive on the go? +++ "Image Viewer" +++ New image database: „Ruth Baumgarte“ +++ 25th Anniversary of prometheus +++ Responsive, revised, improved