Elmer Kolfin
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.
As he believes that the making, the stylistic and iconographical appearance and the perception of art are directly related to the function of art, the social function of images in their historical context is at the centre of his interdisciplinary research and teaching. He hasa special interest in iconography, paintingtechnique, prints and book illustrations and in the international position of early modern Dutch art.
Current research
Rembrandts Africans. On the function of a motif in Rembrandt’s art
This article draws attention to the fact that Rembrandt throughout his career surprisingly often included Africans in his drawings, etchings and paintings. It investigates in what context Rembrandt employed this motif, what the iconographic and artistic significance was, what his sources were and how the motif was perceived by Rembrandts contemporaries. The article will be published in volume 3 of The image of the Black in Western Art (ed. David Bindman). Becoming human. Black slavery in French, British and Dutch book illustration 1600-1800 This text studies the relation between the different artistic conventions of three major themes in early modern book illustration of black slavery and their different functions: images of slave labour (1630-1800), of the private and social life of slaves (1680-1800 and beyond) and of bondage (1770-1800 and beyond). The text results from a lecture presented at a symposium on representations of slavery in Europe 1500-1800 and will be published in the proceedings, edited by Elizabeth McGrath. Jacob Jordaens,Andries de Graaf andthe Batavian Revolt in town hall of Amsterdam c. 1650-1670 The research focuses on the painted decoration in the Amsterdam town hall that represents the Batavian Revolt. What did the city magistrate want to communicate with it? Why did a large part of the commission go to the Antwerp painter Jacob Jordaens at a time when the there was ample choice of Amsterdam history painters. What was the status of Jordaens in the Netherlands ? Who owned his works and how were they appreciated? The political and artistic ideas that were current in the network of burgomaster Andries de Graeff seem to have been particularly relevant. The research 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
Black is beautiful 2008
Stadhouders in beeld 2007
Jan van Huysum 2006
The Young Gentry at play 2005
Van deslavenzweep endemuze 1997
Selection of publications
E.Kolfin, 'Tot uitpersing van tranen. De verbeelding van de hartstochten in nde 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), Zwolle 2008 (in Dutch and English). E. Kolfin, ‘Black Models in Dutch Art between 1580 and 1800. Fact and Fiction’, in: E. Kolfin en E. Schreuder, Black is beautiful. Rubens tot Dumas (exh. cat. Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam), Zwolle 2008, pp. 70-87 (in Dutch 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 merry 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.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
‘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.
‘Zwart in druk. Over voorstellingen van de donkere huid in de prentkunst (1500-1800)’, De kleur zwart. Representaties van ‘zwarten’ in beeldbronnen van 1500 tot nu, Studiedag van de werkgroep visuele cultuur, Amsterdam, P.J. Meertensinstituut, 27/06/2008.
‘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’s Africans’, African studies conference, Leiden , Africa Study Centre, Leiden , 13/07/2007. ‘Hof, stad, staat en de wereld. De vier werelddelen in de beeldvorming van het stadhouderlijk hof, de Staten van Holland en de stad Amsterdam’, Mastercourse Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 01/12/2006. ‘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. ‘Rembrandts Afrikanen en het onderzoek naar zwarte mensen in de beeldende kunst van de Gouden Eeuw’, Colloquium van het Amsterdams centrum voor de studie van de Gouden Eeuw, Amsterdam, 11/05/2006. ‘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 ‘De wreker op de markt. Noordnederlandse beeldvorming van Frederik Hendrik en de organisatie van het prentbedrijf’, Symposium Beeldvorming van de stadhouders van Oranje-Nassau 1570-1700 in contemporaine grafiek , Delft 21/10/2005 ‘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 ‘Valt er nog wat te lachen? Kanttekeningen bij een kunsthistorisch problemenkind’, Symposium bij de tentoonstellingen ‘Zinnen en Minnen’, Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam (07/01/05) ‘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. ‘Het geval Palamedesz: voorbereidingen voor een tentoonstelling over de Delftse schilder Anthonie Palamedesz (1601-1673) in het Prinsenhof te Delft’, Onderzoeksreferaat opleiding kunstgeschiedenis van de UvA, Amsterdam, 13/05/04.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 verbeelding van slavernij in Suriname. Leiden: KITLV Uitgeverij, 1997.