Biography

Elmer Kolfin specializes in Dutch art 1500-1800. He has studied art history and modern western literature at the University of Utrecht . He received his PhD at the University of Leiden in 2002 where he was also a lecturer. Following his post doctoral research at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam he became assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam in 2004.

Areas of expertise are prints and book illustrations, (political)iconography, early modern representations of Africans, social functions of art.

Current research

 Art, power and inspiration. The Batavian Series in the Town Hall of Amsterdam c. 1650-1665 

The research focuses on the unfinished cycle of the Batavian Revolt in the town hall of Amsterdam, painted by Jacob Jordaens, Jan Lievens and Govert Flinck together with Jurriaen Ovens between 1660 and 1664. It seems that the political and artistic ideas of the Amsterdam burgomasters and brothers Cornelis and Andries de Graeff were decisive for the iconography, style and choice of painters. The project is part of the program Artistic and Economic Competition on the Amsterdam Art Market for History Painting, 2006-2010, funded by NWO and lead by prof. dr. E.J. Sluijter en dr. M.J. Bok.

The iconography of stadholder Frederik Hendrik, c 1600-1650: a new approach to the study of meaning in art

Through the study of the iconography of stadholder Frederik Hendrik this book examines the function of portraits as a means of propaganda. The chapters discuss the image of Frederik Hendrik in prints, applied arts, painted state portraits and in the decorative program of the Oranjezaal in Huis ten Bosch. Each chapter focuses on the ways in which these different kinds of art were used to reach a specific audience and to communicate different, but overlapping messages. A more theoretically oriented introduction on the importance of the study of the social function and the use of art to understand the meaning as an alternative to the iconological approach that predominated the second half of twentieth century opens thebook.  

Books by Kolfin

Selection of publications

E. Kolfin, 'Becoming human. The iconography of black slavery in French , British and Dutch book illustrations c. 1600-c.1800',   in E. Mc Grath and J.M. Massing (eds .), From Renaissance Trophy to Abolitionist Emblem. The Slave in European Art Publications of the Warburg Institute , London 2012, pp. 161-190.

E. Kolfin en J. van Veen (red.), Gedrukt tot Amsterdam. Amsterdamse prentmakers en -uitgevers in de Gouden Eeuw, Amsterdam/ Zwolle 2011

E.Kolfin , 'Rembrandt's Africans' , in: D. Bindman, H. L. Gates jr. and K.C.C. Dalton (eds.) , The image of the Black in Western Art III.1. From the 'age of discovery' to the age of abolition. Artists of the Renaissance and Baroque, Cambridge (MA) and London 2010, pp. 271-306.

E.Kolfin, 'Tot uitpersing van tranen. De verbeelding van dehartstochten in de boekillustraties van Romeyn de Hooghe', in: H.van Nierop (red.), Romeyn de Hooghe. De verbeelding van de late Gouden Eeuw, 2008, pp. 171-183.     

E. Kolfin and E. Schreuder (eds.), Black is beautiful. Rubens tot Dumas (exh. cat. Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam), Zwoll e 2008 (in D utch and English).

E. Kolfin, ' Voor eenheid, victorie, vrede en welvaart. Beeldvorming van Frederik Hendrik in contemporaine Noord-Nederlandse grafiek c.1600-1650', in: S. Craft-Giepmans, C. Dumas, E. Kolfin, S. Groenveld (red.), Oranje in zwart-wit. Beeldvorming in grafiek van de stadhouders van Oranje-Nassau 1560-1700 , Jaarboek Oranje-Nassau Museum, Rotterdam en Gronsveld 2007, pp. 69-107.    

E. Kolfin, 'Slotbeschouwing: over nieuwsprenten, propaganda en prentgebruik', in: S. Craft-Giepmans, C. Dumas, E. Kolfin en S. Groenveld (red.) Oranje in zwart-wit. Beeldvorming in grafiek van de stadhouders van Oranje-Nassau 1560-1700 , Jaarboek Oranje-Nassau Museum 2006, Rotterdam en Gronsveld 2007, pp. 193-212.      

E. Kolfin, Voor koningen en prinsen. De stillevens en   landschappen van Jan van Huysum (1682-1749), Delft 2006.   

E. Kolfin, The young gentry at play. Representations of me rry companies in Northern Netherlandish art 1610-1645 , Leiden 2005.  

E. Kolfin,

C. Pottasch, R. Hoppe, 'The Metamorphosis of Diana.

A new interpretation of the young Vermeers painting technique', in Art Matters.

Technical Art History in the Netherlands

1 (2002), 1, pp.   97-117. 

E. Kolfin,Van de slavenzweep en de muze. Twee eeuwen verbeel-ding van slavernij in Suriname. Leiden 1997. Bekroond met de Van Gelder-prijs 1997.

E. Kolfin, 'Het werk der geheele gemeente'. De St. Antonius-abt: een neogotische kerk van Cuypers en haar kunstvoorwerpen in Heesch-Neerbosch. Nijmegen 1997.

Selection of lectures

'

White, Black and Blaeu. Art,science and the black skin in print in the seventeenth century',

Knowledge and Replication. Early Modern Sciences in Print

, Evanston, Northwestern University and Block Museum of Art, 20/01/2012

'T he artistic ideas of Cornelis and Andries de Graeff, patrons of the arts', Economic and Artistic Rivalry on the Amsterdam Art Market of History Painting 1630-1670, Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam, 9-10/12/2011.

With Marrigje Rikken MA, ' A New Copy Printed in Colour of Carel Allard's Tooneel der voornaamste Nederlandse huizen en lusthoven: Publishing Coloured Prints in Amsterdam around 1700', Impressions of Colour. Discovering Colour in Early Modern Printmaking ca. 1400-1700, Cambridge (UK), University of Cambridge, 8-9/12/2011.

'When Africans became black. Rubens and the changing image of Africans in early modern Netherlandish prints', Vision and Knowledge. Clark Library Conference , Los Angeles, University of California at Los Angeles, 14-15/10/ 2011.

'Abraham Bloteling (1640-1690): life and work of a printmaker in Amsterdam in the second half of the Golden Age', O rdnungen des Sehens. Innovationsfelder der kunsthistorischen Niederlandeforschung , Internationalen Konferenz des Arbeitskreises Niederländische Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte (ANKK),    Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum and Goethe-University   30/09-02/10/2011.

'Rembrandt's Reclyning Nude: is she black or white?', Image of the Black in Western Art M. Victor Leventritt Symposium, Cambridge (MA.), Harvard University 15/11/2010

'Becoming Human. Dutch , French and English book illustrations of

black slavery 1600-1800', public lecture Bordeaux , Université Michel de    Montaigne  09/12/09.

  ' Onvoltooid verleden tijd. Eigentijdse interpretaties van de onvoltooide Batavenreeks voor het stadhuis van Amsterdam', Woord en beeld als wapen: nieuws en propaganda in de zeventiende eeuw. Congres van de werkgroep De Zeventiende Eeuw, Amsterdam, 30/08/2008.  

'The emergence of blacks in Dutch art and art history of the Golden Age', Osmosis, re-telling European Art and Architectural History, Leiden University, 30/05/2008. 

'The visibility of slaves in Dutch art', The iconography of slavery in Europe 1500-1800, The Warburg Institute, Londen 24/11/2007.      

'Rembrandt and the paradox of the African. The representation of black Africans in Dutch visual art (1500-1800)', International Conference 'Black European Studies in Transnational Perspective',   Berlijn, Freie Universität 26/07/2006-30/07/2006.

'Humor in theory. The function of humor in artists' biographies from the Dutch Golden Age', Conference Renaissance Society of America , Panel: Getting to the 'bottom'   of decorum: laughter, social practices and the art of painting in the Netherlandsduringthe fifteenth to sixteenthcenturies, San Francisco 24/03/2006   

'Surprisingly Noble. De receptie van Huis ten Bosch in woord en beeld

1650-1720', Symposium Nieuw Licht op de Gouden Eeuw, Amsterdam, 24/06/05 

'Merry for the market. The economic survival of the Delft painter Anthony Palamedesz (1601-1673)', Symposium Representation and Regulation.Seventeenth Century Economics in the Dutch Republic, Amsterdam , 12/11/2004.    

Awards

2002

Studieprijs Stichting Praemium Erasmianum voor Een geselschap jonge luyden.Productie, functie en betekenis van Noordnederlandse vrolijke gezelschappen 1610-1645, Leiden 2002 (dissertation)

1997                

Van Gelder Prijs voor Van de Slavenzweep en de Muze. Twee eeuwen verbeel-ding van slavernij in Suriname . Leiden: KITLV Uitgeverij, 1997.