Liefde voor de Hollandse bouwkunst (A love of Dutch architecture) studies and discusses the publications produced by the Amsterdam publishing house Kosmos on architecture and applied art in the... Show moreLiefde voor de Hollandse bouwkunst (A love of Dutch architecture) studies and discusses the publications produced by the Amsterdam publishing house Kosmos on architecture and applied art in the period between 1923, when the firm was founded, and 1960. The man responsible throughout this period was Jacobus (Jac.) van der Kolk (1887-1980). Van der Kolk began his career in 1916 in the technical bookshop of Weduwe J. Ahrend & Zoon, a supplier of drafting and office equipment founded in 1896 by Jacobus Ahrend. Two years later he was promoted to head of Ahrend’s technical publishing department, which had been founded in 1904. In 1923 the Ahrend catalogue became that of Kosmos, with Van der Kolk being made director of the new firm.The research questions emerged after drawing up as complete a catalogue as possible. The subsequent analysis was aimed at gaining an understanding of Kosmos’s publishing programme, which aspects of it were stressed and how the various segments of the catalogue developed. The most important question, the one underlying this study as a whole, concerns the circumstances, working methods and decisions that produced the Kosmos catalogue in the years 1923-1960, and how Kosmos rated in the competition with other publishers operating in the same fields Show less
In the Counter Reformation, art and architecture are often attributed a central role in such a process of persuasion. Recent historical studies, however, have emphasized the intense fear of God... Show moreIn the Counter Reformation, art and architecture are often attributed a central role in such a process of persuasion. Recent historical studies, however, have emphasized the intense fear of God that held Early Modern society in its grip, leading to a revision of the traditional view of the Counter Reformation as a top-down process. This revision has important implications for the history of art, as it challenges us to reconsider the notion of religious art and architecture during the Counter Reformation as rhetorical “propaganda”. In the present dissertation I approach the religious art patronage in the Catholic South from a perspective informed by recent developments in ethnography and anthropology. I propose to redefine the “baroque piety” of religious patronage that generated works of art and architecture not as a strategy to persuade (in a rhetorical way), but to negotiate with the divine in a continuous process of reconciliation, aiming to regain divine grace. Put in anthropological terms, works of art served as ritual interfaces to enter into negotiation with the divine. This negotiation with God took place within networks of social relations (nexuses) in which art and architecture functioned as agents of change Show less
The rediscovery of the Greek-Doric temples in South-Italian Paestum caused a great stir in eighteenth-century architectural thought and turned existing ideas on classical architecture upside down.... Show moreThe rediscovery of the Greek-Doric temples in South-Italian Paestum caused a great stir in eighteenth-century architectural thought and turned existing ideas on classical architecture upside down. More than any other ancient site Paestum came to fascinate architects, artists, writers and tourists, who represented the temples in drawings, engravings, texts or publications in a complex and paradoxical way, showing the developments in architectural thought from the cautious and exploratory rediscovery of the site to a general and strong consensus about the value of the temples. The site made it possible to question many subjects that were important in architectural, aesthetic and artistic debates in England, France and Italy. I argue that this becomes understandable through the analysis of architectural experience, a major theme in the eighteenth century. In studying the experiences in situ the dissertation reconstructs Paestum’s key role in the debates, with as main issues the sublime and the picturesque, primitivism and the origins of architecture, changing ideas on cultural meaning, and classical architecture and its role and historiography. The interactions between architectural experience and architectural theory demonstrate that Paestum functioned as a focus and laboratory for the growing importance of science and history in eighteenth-century architectural thought. Show less
