CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

Retirement of Jan Piet Filedt Kok from the Rijksmuseum Marked with Symposium in Amsterdam, 28 March 2008

At Felix Meritis on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam, some 150 colleagues and friends honored Jan Piet Filedt Kok most warmly on his retirement from the Rijksmuseum after 33 years of distinguished service.

Jan Piet Filedt Kok at Felix Meritis, 28 March 2008

Jan Piet Filedt Kok at the reception following his retirement symposium at Felix Meritis, Amsterdam, 28 March 2008

Speakers at the symposium:

Ger Luijten
Welcome and master of ceremonies

Ilja Veldman
Vertrouwde gebruiken en exotische rituelen: Picart’s illustraties voor de Ceremonies et coutumes de tous les peuples.
Demonstration of diverse sources employed by Picart for the visual materials in his monumental book on the religions of the world.

Jeroen Giltay
Een onbekend schetsboekje uit de 17de eeuw.
A rare intact artist’s sketchbook of the second half of the 17th century, mainly with landscape drawings of high quality, recently acquired by Fondation Custodia, Paris, attributed to Jan van Kessel (1641-80).

Huigen Leeflang
Post uit Praag: over een teruggevonden tekening van Bartholomeus Spranger.
The genesis and iconography of a mythological allegory engraved by Jan Muller in Haarlem for Bartholomeus Spranger in Prague.

Taco Dibbits and Ige Verslype
Paulus Potters Herders met vee: Rijksmuseum versus Woburn Abbey.
Two versions of a cowscape by Potter, an artist who never repeated himself, subjected to close reading, coming out in favor of the Woburn House version.

Henk van Os
Een Heilige Paulus voor Jan Piet.
Attribution of an Italian St. Paul of about 1500, donated to the Rijksmuseum during directorship of the speaker, to a little-known Northern Italian master.

Jan Piet Filedt Kok
Lucas van Leyden, De dans om het Gouden Kalf.
On the acqusition by the Rijksmuseum by A.F. van Schendel of a precious masterpiece by Lucas van Leyden,

Presentation of Jan Piet Filedt Kok’s newest monograph, a study in the Rijksmuseum Dossier series on Lucas van Leyden’s Dance around the golden calf

Peter Hecht
Thanks to Jan Piet Filedt Kok for his editorship of Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art and the Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek as well as his chairmanship of the Stichting Nederlands Kunsthistorische Publicaties.

In an announcement of his own, Filedt Kok told the audience that he had set up a fund with the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds under the name "Het Atelierpraktijken Fonds" (The Studio Practice Fund). It is described as follows in a folder that all the guests were given along with a copy of the dossier on the Dance with the golden calf: "The purpose of the Studio Practice Fund is to stimulate scholarly research and publications mainly on the history of the restoration of works of art and associated studio and museum practices."
 
CODART has special reasons to express its admiration for and appreciation of Jan Piet Filedt Kok, for his faithful participation in our congresses and study trips. His interest in and support of our network formed a major contribution to CODART in its formative period. We wish him many fruitful and satisfying years to come.