Shimmering Faith investigates how Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) can be used to study and communicate the distinctive visual and material properties of mother-of-pearl microcarvings and inlays from the late-medieval and early-modern period. These small-scale artworks—delicate, reflective, and often translucent—were designed to capture and transform light. Their radiance was not merely decorative but integral to…

How can you view high-quality marginal decoration in digitized medieval manuscripts? And how can you use IIIF (a set of open standards) and a digital tool to present illustration in the borders of medieval manuscripts to a broad audience? These questions were central to the introductory IIIF workshop given during the Bachelor’s course Onderzoekswerkgroep Kunst…

dr. Daantje Meuwisen Only a handful early modern sketchbooks from the North have survived, but they fulfill a crucial position within art history. Research so far has focused predominantly on subject matter on the folio’s within these books, rather than exploring the function of these objects as instruments for artistic practice and work-flow. This project…

How do we come to identify and define “Netherlandish art objects?” What are the characteristics that binds them to the Netherlandish world? When tracing the materiality of these objects, one might come to find that what is seemingly familiar, and “Netherlandish” might not be so after all. Although their forms might be familiar, a closer…

The revival of pastel in Europe from 1850 onwards marked a significant period of transformation in its use as an artist’s medium. Pastel’s unique qualities, allowing both painterly and graphic expression, attracted a diverse range of artists, from landscape painters to Symbolists. Industrial advancements introduced new synthetic colorants and supports, expanding artists’ choices, but also…

Mother-of-Pearl(螺钿), is one of the typical inlaid materials of lacquer. It has glossy reflections like aurora borealis under different lights and viewpoints. The shape, color, texture, size, thickness, quantity, and layout of the inlay have also been meticulously designed by the craftsmen. Sometimes they were combined with other lacquer techniques such as multiple-jewel inlay, gilding,…

Het Geheugen van Geur is a collaboration between the KNAW Young Academy, Huygens Institute and the UU DURARE project to reconstruct a seventeenth-century fragrance created by Constantijn Huygens. Multi-disciplinary researchers from the humanities and sciences came together at the Utrecht ArtLab to follow Huygens’s recipe and distill a mixture of flower petals, spices, and herbs….

Dendrochronological examinations of panel paintings have provided art historians with valuable insights regarding the dating, materials and manufacture of panels, especially when documentary sources are scarce. However, while dendrochronologists frequently identify panels with boards that derive from the same tree, little research has explored the implications of this finding in an art historical context. For…

Our cultural heritage comprises many art objects that are hundreds and sometimes thousands of years old. How did they survive this long? While many factors determine if and how art can be preserved, one has fundamentally impacted its long-term survival: the desire to make and own artefacts that withstand the test of time. Dynamics of…

Discussions about the use of facsimile in art history have a long history. The use of photographic reproductions of artworks caused strong reactions amongst art historians throughout the 19th century. Although the facsimile debate took place almost a century ago and focussed on ‘traditional’ physical reconstructions of artworks, this discussion is again relevant today with…