Freemasonry is an initiation society, active in the Netherlands since 1735. This dissertation discusses the history, rituals, material culture and iconography of freemasonry in the Netherlands and... Show moreFreemasonry is an initiation society, active in the Netherlands since 1735. This dissertation discusses the history, rituals, material culture and iconography of freemasonry in the Netherlands and its trade posts in India, Ceylon, the Dutch East Indies, China and Japan. The membership had particular advantages for travellers, which explains why ca. 20-30% of the employees of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) were members. They were involved in the trade in export art for the European and American markets, and also traded privately in goods for the masonic markets. The dissertation describes the daily routine in the lodges in the 18th and 19th centuries, the extraordinary ritual architecture and interiors of lodge buildings on Java, and the production of Chinese export porcelain and Japanese lacquer with complex symbolic decorations. The participation of women and (Eur)asians in lodges on Java is also briefly discussed. As such, the book offers those interested in art history, colonial history and/or the East India Company an introduction into a relatively unknown subject. It provides information for the identification and dating of relevant museum objects, and makes a large amount of material from lodge archives accessible. Show less
This dissertation focused on the prolific early European trade and consumption of three Asian manufactured goods: Chinese silk and porcelain, and Japanese lacquer in the sixteenth and early... Show moreThis dissertation focused on the prolific early European trade and consumption of three Asian manufactured goods: Chinese silk and porcelain, and Japanese lacquer in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and has shown how the material cultures of late Ming China and Momoyama/early Edo Japan became inextricably linked with the West. Multiple sources provided new and unexpected documentary and material evidence of this trade by the Iberian Kingdoms of Portugal and Spain, and the trading companies formed in the Northern Netherlands/Dutch Republic and England. They also informed us about the commercial networks through which these Asian goods circulated, and the way in which they were acquired, used and appreciated in the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and English societies in Western Europe, and in the multi-ethnic societies of the colonies in the New World. Some new finds relate to the use of porcelain in Western Europe in the sixteenth century, the terminology employed in northwestern Europe to refer to Kraak porcelain, and the Japanese lacquer objects made in European shapes for the Dutch and English trading companies earlier than in Chinese porcelain. This study provides a better understanding of the intercultural exchanges that occurred between the East and West at the time. Show less
Een beschouwing van de stilistische evolutie van de Franse vroege moderne ceramiek wordt getoetst aan een lezing van de contemporaine kritiek. Zo ontstaat het beeld van een ambigue... Show moreEen beschouwing van de stilistische evolutie van de Franse vroege moderne ceramiek wordt getoetst aan een lezing van de contemporaine kritiek. Zo ontstaat het beeld van een ambigue antimoderniteit die beheerst wordt door narcistische reacties. De ontleding daarvan vormt een correctie van het beeld van een progressief evoluerende moderniteit en een bijdrage tot de nog ongeschreven geschiedenis van het moderne estheticisme. Show less
In onze moderne tijd wordt aan het goed functioneren van infrastructuur grote aandacht besteed. In het hier gepresenteerde onderzoek heb ik getracht aan te tonen dat ook in de Grieks-Romeinse... Show moreIn onze moderne tijd wordt aan het goed functioneren van infrastructuur grote aandacht besteed. In het hier gepresenteerde onderzoek heb ik getracht aan te tonen dat ook in de Grieks-Romeinse wereld de doorstroming als een cruciaal punt werd beschouwd. Niet alleen de infrastructuur zelf, ook datgene wat via de infrastructuur wordt getransporteerd moet aan hoge kwaliteitseisen voldoen om de (Grieks-Romeinse) stad leefbaar te houden. Evenals tegenwoordig werd ook in de Grieks-Romeinse wereld het functioneren van een stad of gebied soms vergeleken met een menselijk lichaam. In beide gevallen is sprake van voedsel- en drinkwatervoorziening, uitscheiding van afvalproducten en een interne infrastructuur die de producten naar en van hun plaats moet brengen en als zodanig de stad c.q. het lichaam in stand moet houden. Wanneer de infrastructuur echter niet meer kan functioneren __ te weinig capaciteit, een onderbreking of een verkeerde inhoud __ komt de doorstroming in gevaar en lopen lichaam en stad de kans ziek te worden met uiteindelijk de dood als gevolg. De infrastructuur m__t in bedrijf zijn en blijven. Stadsbesturen zagen in dat iedereen baat had bij een goed functionerende stad en troffen voorzieningen om de leefbaarheid van een stad te optimaliseren. Show less
This thesis deals with dress in Leonardo’s portraits of women: his Ginevra de’ Benci, the Lady with an Ermine, La Belle Ferronnière, the portrait cartoon of Isabella d’Este and Mona Lisa. Leonardo... Show moreThis thesis deals with dress in Leonardo’s portraits of women: his Ginevra de’ Benci, the Lady with an Ermine, La Belle Ferronnière, the portrait cartoon of Isabella d’Este and Mona Lisa. Leonardo portrayed his sitters in strikingly plain dress, without the sumptuous gold brocaded silk fabrics and lavish jewellery favoured by their contemporaries. This preference for austerity is discussed in the context of Leonardo’s art theory and his vision of female beauty. As the portraits are studied chronologically, a picture emerges of Leonardo’s approach to dress in portraiture and how that approach developed over time. Show less
Between 1600 and 1660, the cultural life of the city of Florence has been associated almost exclusively with the ruling Medici family. This PhD thesis aims to change this view by showing that... Show moreBetween 1600 and 1660, the cultural life of the city of Florence has been associated almost exclusively with the ruling Medici family. This PhD thesis aims to change this view by showing that educated members of the Florentine patriciate contributed substantially to the cultural success of the Medici court and that their networks were responsible for many cultural innovations in Florence society. My main issue is to demonstrate the ways in which the patricians contributed to the cultural climate in Florence and to the cultural success and social representation of the Medici court, in the period 1600-60. I answer this by looking at their art patronage and collections, their brokerage activities, their cultural academies, their relations with Medici princes, their cultural exchange and the accompanying innovations and experiments, and finally their role in the cultural and sociopolitical representation of the Medici court. Show less
In my overview of the reception of Duchamp I examine the plurality of possible approaches. I demonstrate that the cause of this diversity is primarily a result of the ambiguity of Duchamp. Dario... Show moreIn my overview of the reception of Duchamp I examine the plurality of possible approaches. I demonstrate that the cause of this diversity is primarily a result of the ambiguity of Duchamp. Dario Gamboni's conception of the artwork as a potential image allowed me to consider diverse views about Duchamp as complementary instead of mutually exclusive. Ambiguous images make the viewer aware of his active way of looking. The method I propose is similar to the "educated guesswork" of archaeologists and palaeontologists– an informed guess based on secondary evidence that supports a hypothesis. This approach respects and values the claim of Duchamp on indifference and allows for multiple meanings of a work to coexist. That this produces a more speculative kind of art history seems consistent with the cultural life of the period around 1900 that is characterized by the desire for ambiguity. Finally my ideas for a speculative art history will be put into practice, as I will search for that which has potentially played a role in the development of the works. Special attention is devoted to Duchamp’s language play, in which his ambiguous attitude emerges concretely. Show less
This thesis aims at thinking through the ethical position of animals in a way that differs radically from the manner in wich this ethical position is thought within contemporary animal rights... Show moreThis thesis aims at thinking through the ethical position of animals in a way that differs radically from the manner in wich this ethical position is thought within contemporary animal rights discourse. The reason for this alternative approach is that today's animal rights discourse is characterized by a polemic on demarcation that seems both irresolvable and scientifically unwarranted for being centred on a necessarily arbitrary demarcation between the human and the animal.This cannot but lead to irresponsible demarcation decisions, which implies we must imagine other ways of thinking through the question of the animal. In my research I propose to do this by looking at how language operates within demarcation decisions between humans and animals, both in the legal, literary and popular domain. More specifically, this study demonstrates that the study of tropes in literary texts may enable us to work out modes of identification with animals other than those we typically encounter in the legal and public sphere and,hence, can help us to get beyond the issues of cruelty and consiousness that dominate contemporary animal rights debate as a result of its excessively tight focus on demarcation. Show less
This dissertation examines how Benedictine monks at the Abbey of Fécamp designed, produced, and read books over the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The first part connects the... Show moreThis dissertation examines how Benedictine monks at the Abbey of Fécamp designed, produced, and read books over the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The first part connects the devotional reading practice of lectio divina with the design of the material book and argues that Fécamp scribes purposefully tailored many of their books to suit this particular mode of divine reading. The second part addresses the small number of books from the Fécamp collection with characteristics that do not reflect conventional understandings of how lectio divina was practiced – they imply a different mode of devotional reading that required a selective approach to the text. Moreover, the design of these books also bear a striking resemblance to those produced much later (c. 1200-1300) and in a much different context: the urban schools of Western Europe. While this dissertation explores the parallels in book design and reading practices uncovered between Fécamp and the later scholastic environment, I demonstrate that these books (and this second mode of devotional reading) can also be explained in the context of traditional Benedictine devotion. Show less
Ook gewóón proza heeft stijl. Dat is de argumentatieve stelling die in de titel van dit proefschrift verborgen zit. Vaak wordt stijl gelijkgesteld met het gebruik van stijlfiguren en wordt... Show moreOok gewóón proza heeft stijl. Dat is de argumentatieve stelling die in de titel van dit proefschrift verborgen zit. Vaak wordt stijl gelijkgesteld met het gebruik van stijlfiguren en wordt daarnaast aangenomen dat er dus ook zoiets bestaat als proza zonder stijl. Dat ook ‘gewoon’ proza stijl heeft , is iets wat nog altijd niet vanzelfsprekend wordt geacht. Daarom staat juist transparant taalgebruik centraal in dit onderzoek. In dit proefschrift worden een (cognitief-)taalkundige en een letterkundige benadering van stijlonderzoek met elkaar gecombineerd. Dit wordt gedaan met een tweeledig doel. Ten eerste om een wetenschappelijke onderbouwing te geven aan intuïtieve uitspraken over stijl. Daarnaast om de samenhang te onderzoeken tussen stijl en thema van een roman. Hoe komt het thema van een roman in de stijl tot uitdrukking? Het onderzoek daarnaar vindt plaats aan de hand van een vergelijkende analyse van verhalen en tekstpassages van onder meer Jan Arends, Maarten Biesheuvel en Arnon Grunberg. Show less
