Ever since the last decades of the 20th century, genre painting from the northern and southern Netherlands has been an important subject of the research, publications and exhibitions of several prominent art historians. Currently, genre painting is the focus of a numbers of interesting initiatives: the Mauritshuis in The Hague is preparing a catalogue on the genre paintings from its own collection and hosts an exhibition of genre paintings from the British Royal collections. The RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History collaborates in the project Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting, which will result in a travelling exhibition and a website on the artistic exchange between Dutch genre painters active in the third quarter of the 17th century.
Because of these occasions, the RKD, in consultation with the Mauritshuis, organizes a symposium on the 16th of December, fully dedicated to genre painting from the northern and southern Netherlands. Several prominent art historians will present their research and the two keynote speeches will discuss the results of the research of the past decades and look forward towards future subjects, methods and approaches.
More information and tickets
For more information contact Ellis Dullaart MA, Curator Dutch & Flemish Old Master Painting
e.dullaart@rkd.nl. Tickets are available in the RKD-webshop
Preliminary programme
09.30 Welcome
Dr. Chris Stolwijk, director of the RKD – Netherlands Institute of Art History
09.40 Keynote: the current state of research into Dutch and Flemish genre painting
Dr. Adriaan Waiboer, Curator of Northern European Art, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
10.00 Session 1 Artistic exchange
Painters of and for the elite: artistic rivalry and familiarity with each other’s work
Dr. Piet Bakker, Researcher, TU Delft
Praise and price: peasant pieces by Adriaan van Ostade in the eighteenth-century art market
Dr. Junko Aono, Associate Professor, Kyushu University, Fukuoka
Hieronymus Janssens
Dr. Hannelore Magnus, Research Curator, Rubenshuis, Antwerp
11.00 Coffee break
11.30 Session 2 Regional/local schools
Why did so many of Rembrandt’s followers become genre painters?
Dr. Stephanie Dickey, Bader Chair in Northern Baroque Art, Queen’s University, Kingston
Rome – Utrecht. Connections and disconnections in genre painting, 1615-1625
Prof. dr. Gert-Jan van der Sman, Researcher & Head of Library, NIKI, Florence
Netherlandish humoristic scène de genre in France
David Mandrella, Independent Researcher, France
12.45 Lunch break
14.00 Session 3 Humor in genre painting
The Peasant Wedding as a parodic inversion? Thoughts on the nature of Pieter Bruegel´s humour
Dr. Björn Blauensteiner, Curator for Medieval Art, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna
Monkey madness in seventeenth-century Antwerp: genesis and success of a unique pictorial genre
Dr. Bert Schepers, Senior Editor, Centrum Rubenianum, Antwerp
Why was it clever to be funny? “Geestig” as an epithet to genre painting
Dr. Elmer Kolfin, Assistant Professor, University of Amsterdam
New twists on old jokes? Humor in genre painting of the second half of the 17th century
Dr. Anja Ebert, Provenance Research Project, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg
15.30 Coffee break
16.00 Keynote: perspectives for future research
Prof. dr. em. Eric-Jan Sluijter, Professor Art History of the Renaissance and Early Modern Period, University of Amsterdam
16.30 Questions & discussion
17.00 End
The symposium will be held in English.