There is a wonderful test run happening at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, namely their website at http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/07/hm7_41_1.html.
IBM is experimenting with color content and shapes in their search functions. Can’t remember the name of a painting or the painer? No problem.
If you can remember the vague color scheme and/or some of the shapes, then you can find it. Pretty fascinating, especially for the intuitive classification of images, as opposed to text. This is how I would remember a painting so I am assuming this logic applies to others as well. I recommend giving it a whirl.