Visual representation of period of time

[edwardanderson]

The Rijksmuseum records a time period which is depicted by or is the subject of a visual artwork. The captured data is a simple date range: a beginning and an end. This information is distinct from objects' representations of discrete events.

Cataloguing definition:

De datum van het onderwerp van de voorstelling of van het onderwerp waarmee het object kan worden geassocieerd.

Translation:

The date of the subject of the representation or of the subject with which the object can be associated.

I don't think there's a permissible API pattern for relating a period of time with a VisualItem, without having to mint URIs for time-span ranges and treating them as Event resources. Events for which the only stored data is a time-span.

Because I can't be certain that the relationship is subject or depiction, I think I may have to use an AttributeAssignment. But while the range of crm:P141_assigned is E1_Entity, the API restricts the implementation to a reference, to a resource for which I have no URI. I think this rules out the following pattern:

<Object> crm:P65_shows_visual_item <VisualWork> .

<VisualWork> crm:P140i_was_attributed_by [
  a crm:E13_Attribute_Assignment ;
  crm:P141_assigned [
    a crm:E52_Time-Span ;
    crm:P82a_begin_of_the_begin "..."
  ]
]

Could I ask for a nudge in the right direction for how to model this data?

[azaroth42]

Yes, you would need to create a Period or Event record with a name and the timespan to represent the "associated date" to do it in the way the API would expect.

And, yes, the API only allows reified relationships rather than reified properties. For assignments of embedded data structures such as dimension or identifier, we attach it to the dimension or identifier directly ... but here there's nowhere to put the timespan.

I think the API expected way is actually the right approach however, as multiple works might represent / be about the same event or time period. If it's just a data structure, then you can't later talk about what that data structure actually is standing in for. So I would create little Period records with the timespan and a name constructed from the date(s). Then you can either use AAs for a nameless relationship, or just put them all into about as it's close enough.

For example: https://lux.collections.yale.edu/view/activity/566ecb6f-2385-4155-a749-673c822a52e2

We've had to do this in LUX for Places as well: https://lux.collections.yale.edu/view/results/places?q=%7B%22text%22%3A%22%5C%22region+shown+by%5C%22%22%2C%22_lang%22%3A%22en%22%7D&sq=%22region+shown+by%22