In April 2022 I contacted Roman Koot, librarian at the Rotterdamsch Leeskabinet, with a proposal to curate an exhibition about Erasmus. The idea for an exhibition emerged very early in my PhD project about Erasmus because I noticed that students and staff alike were rather unacquainted with the namesake of the university. Roman Koot responded […]
Author: Sanne Steen
Early Dutch Orientalism and Enlightenment in Mahomets Alkoran (1696) Only a single illustrated edition of the Qur’an has been published throughout history. Mahomets Alkoran, a Dutch translation of 1696, is adorned with six illustrations that are seemingly both informative and sensational. In this thesis, I investigate how these contradictory sentiments in the illustrations of Muslims […]
Watermark research is increasingly used in research of major artists and new techniques greatly expand the applicability of watermark research and its outcomes. Identification of a sheet’s watermark can give insight into the date and place of origin of a drawing, print or book. When different sheets are compared, the watermark can prove their connectedness […]
A 1687 painting by Michiel van Musscher (1645-1705) shows the diplomat Thomas Hees (1634-1693) surrounded by Dutch and Algerian objects. Hees is surrounded by his nephews Jan and Andries Hees and the black servant Thomas, whose name is known through the inscription on the painting’s verso. Andries is presenting a letter to his uncle, reading […]
Like father, like son?
The books and art of Jan Goeree (1670-1731) in relation to the artistic theories of Willem Goeree (1635-1711) Between 1700 and 1720, the Amsterdam engraver and painter Arnoud van Halen (1673-1732) collected poets. He painted their portraits on small oval-shaped metal plates and placed them in gilded frames. After 1720 the portraits were safely stored […]
The representation of oriental objects in Renaissance paintings is described by for example Spallanzani (2007), Ionescu (2005) and Carrier (2008). Currently, art historian Lauren Arnold works on an important attribution to this topic, partly through a database of paintings with oriental carpets. Domenico Ghirlandaio (1448) is one of the many Italian artists incorporating oriental carpets […]
The impact of changing morals on the interpretation of visual icons “When I’m not on this earth anymore, people will remember that picture [..] of V-J day 15th of August 1945,” . The V-J day kiss in Times Square is one of the most famous photographs by German-born Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995). The excitement in the […]
On 24 May 1897 nineteen artists left the traditional Viennese Künstlerhaus, partly because they did not want to work in a historising style and because they did not want to be influenced by politics. They opposed the Austrian arthistorical tradition, forcing them to find their inspiration elsewhere. As a result of the technological revolution starting […]
Barbara Broekman (1955) is an Amsterdam-based artist who makes monumental artworks. She mostly bases her works on textile techniques and patterns. In 2012, she created My Town, a celebration of diversity, which is in the public hallway of the Amsterdam Museum. In 2017, Broekman created the artwork Recht en Onrecht, or Justice and Injustice, for […]
The course Drawing in Focus was a collaboration between the University of Amsterdam and the Amsterdam Museum. With a select group of students, we studied varied drawings in the collection of the museum. The drawing of my choice was The Entrance to a Garden by Jan Lievens (1607-1674). This outstanding drawing shows a gate to […]