Eduard Siegfried "Eddy" de Jongh (
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
, 7 June 1931) is a Dutch art historian specialized in
iconography
Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...
. He was professor of art history with a teaching assignment in iconography at
Utrecht University
Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollm ...
between 1976 and 1989.
Career
De Jongh (1931) studied art history in Utrecht with Jan G. van Gelder and William S. Heckscher. Between 1963 and 1966 he was librarian of the Utrecht Art History Institute, later working there as a teacher and research assistant. From 1966 to 1973 he was part of the Center for Advanced Study in Art History. In 1976 he was appointed professor of iconology and art theory at
Utrecht University
Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollm ...
, a position he held until 1990. In 1976 he was guest
curator
A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...
of the exhibition ''Tot lering en vermaak''
('To instruct and entertain') at the
Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the Sted ...
. Central to this exhibition was the idea that signs in paintings provide explanations for the (moral) meaning of the art. This iconological method introduced by De Jongh proved influential and would be used for decades at the Rijksmuseum and elsewhere.
De Jongh was elected a member of the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...
(KNAW) in 1987. He is a foreign member of
The Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts
The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium (RASAB) is a non-governmental association which promotes and organises science and the arts in Belgium by coordinating the national and international activities of its constituent academies su ...
(KVAB), honorary member of the Historians of Netherlandish Art and doctor honoris causa of the
University of Amsterdam
The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other bein ...
(2002). In 2011 he received the Gijselaar-Hintzenfonds Prijs, intended for art historians who manage to reach a broad audience. In 2019 he was awarded honorary membership of the Dutch Association of Art Historians (''Vereniging van Nederlandse Kunsthistorici''), which called him the "founding father of iconography in the Netherlands".
In 1966 he was a co-founder of ''Simiolus. Netherlands quarterly for the history of art'', and remained one of the editors of this magazine until 1976. From 1990 till 2016 he was one of the editors of ''Kunstschrift''. His publications are mainly in the field of sixteenth and seventeenth-century Dutch art and art historiography.
Selected bibliography
Books
*''Zinne- en minnebeelden in de schilderkunst van de zeventiende eeuw'', Amsterdam-Antwerpen 1967
*''Tot lering en vermaak. Betekenissen van Hollandse genrevoorstellingen uit de zeventiende eeuw'', Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 1976
*
t al.
T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is der ...
''Still life in the age of Rembrandt'', Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland 1982
*''Portretten van echt en trouw. Huwelijk en gezin in de Nederlandse kunst van de zeventiende eeuw'', Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem 1986
*''Kunst en het vruchtbare misverstand. Huizinga-lezing 1992'', Amsterdam 1993
*
t al.
T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is der ...
''Faces of the Golden Age. Seventeenth-Century Dutch Portraits'', Yamaguchi, Kumamoto, Tokyo, Rotterdam, Kunsthal 1994
*''Kwesties van betekenis. Thema en motief in de Nederlandse schilderkunst van de zeventiende eeuw'', Leiden 1995 ( English edition: ''Questions of meaning. Theme and motif in Dutch seventeenth-century painting'', Leiden 2000) (Japanese edition: ''オランダ絵画のイコノロジー―テーマとモチーフを読み解く'', Tokyo 2005)
*
ith Ger Luijten
The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany.
Geography
Location
The Ith is immediatel ...
''Spiegel van alledag. Nederlandse genreprenten 1550-1700'', Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 1997 ( English edition: ''Mirror of everyday life. Genre prints in the Netherlands 1550-1700'')
*''Dankzij de tiende muze. 33 Opstellen uit Kunstschrift'', Leiden 2000
*
ith Jan Piet Filedt Kok''Peter Vos. Metamorfosen'', Bussum 2013 (French edition: Peter Vos. ''Métamorphoses'', Paris-Bussum 2013)
*
ith Jan Piet Filedt Kok''Peter Vos. Getekende brieven'', Amsterdam 2017
*
ith Jan Piet Filedt Kok''Peter Vos. Getekende boeken'', Amsterdam 2020
*''‘Onbenul! Dit is poëzie’. De getekende en geschreven gedichten van Peter Vos'', Bussum 2023.
Articles
*
ith P.J. Vinken ‘Frans Hals als voortzetter van een emblematische traditie. Bij het huwelijksportret van Isaac Massa en Beatrix van der Laen’, ''Oud Holland'' 76 (1961), pp. 117-152
*
ith P.J. Vinken ‘De boosaardigheid van Hals’ regenten en regentessen’, ''Oud Holland'' 78 (1963), pp. 1-26
*‘Erotica in vogelperspectief. De dubbelzinnigheid van een reeks 17de-eeuwse genrevoorstellingen’, ''Simiolus'' 3 (1968-69), pp. 22-74
*‘The Spur of Wit: Rembrandt’s Response to an Italian Challenge’, ''Delta. A Review of Arts, Life and Thought in the Netherlands'', Summer 1969, pp. 49-67
*‘Vermommingen van Vrouw Wereld in de 17de eeuw’, ''Album amicorum J.G. van Gelder'', The Hague 1973, pp. 198-206
*‘“’t Gotsche krulligh mall”. De houding tegenover de gotiek in het zeventiende-eeuwse Holland’, ''Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek'' 24 (1973), pp. 85-145
*‘Grape symbolism in paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries’, ''Simiolus'' 7 (1974), pp. 166-191
*‘Pearls of virtue and pearls of vice’, ''Simiolus'' 8 (1975-76), pp. 69-97
*‘Real Dutch art and not-so-real Dutch art: some nationalistic views of seventeenth-century Netherlandish painting’, ''Simiolus'' 20 (1990–91), pp. 197–206
*‘Some notes on interpretation’, in David Freedberg and Jan de Vries (eds.), ''Art in history, history in art. Studies in seventeenth-century Dutch culture'', Santa Monica, California 1991, pp. 119–136
*‘Nationalistische visies op zeventiende-eeuwse Hollandse kunst’, in S.C. Dik en G.W. Muller (eds.), ''Het hemd is nader dan de rok. Zes voordrachten over het eigene van de Nederlandse cultuur'', Publikaties van de Commissie Geesteswetenschappen KNAW, nr. 1, Assen-Maastricht 1992, pp. 61–82
*‘De Nederlandse zeventiende-eeuwse schilderkunst door politieke brillen bezien’, in Frans Grijzenhout & Henk van Veen (eds.), ''De gouden eeuw in perspectief. Het beeld van de Nederlandse zeventiende-eeuwse schilderkunst in later tijd'', Nijmegen 1992, pp. 225–249 (English translation 1999)
*‘De iconologische benadering van de zeventiende-eeuwse Nederlandse schilderkunst’, in Frans Grijzenhout & Henk van Veen (eds.), ''De gouden eeuw in perspectief. Het beeld van de Nederlandse zeventiende-eeuwse schilderkunst in later tijd'', Nijmegen 1992, pp. 299–329 (English translation 1999)
*‘Die "Sprachlichkeit" der niederländischen Malerei im 17. Jahrhundert’, in Sabine Schulze (ed.), ''Leselust. Niederländische Malerei von Rembrandt bis Vermeer'', Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt 1993, pp. 23–33
*‘Realism and Seeming Realism in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting’, in Wayne Franits (ed.), ''Looking at Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art. Realism Reconsidered'', Cambridge 1997, pp. 21–56, 206-211
*‘Painted Words in Dutch Art of the Seventeenth Century’, in Iain Hampshire-Monk, Karin Tilmans en Frank van Vree (eds.), ''History of Concepts: Comparative Perspectives'', Amsterdam 1998, pp. 167–189
*‘On balance’, in Ivan Gaskell and Michiel Jonker (eds.), ''Vermeer Studies'' (Studies in the History of Art 55), National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. 1998, pp. 351–365
*‘Vluchtige rook vereeuwigd. Betekenissen van tabaksgebruik in zeventiende-eeuwse voorstellingen’, in ''Rookgordijnen. Roken in de kunsten: van olieverf tot celluloid'', Kunsthal, Rotterdam 2003, pp. 85–127
*‘De symboliek van vis, visser, visgerei en vangst’, in Liesbeth M. Helmus (ed.), ''VIS. Stillevens van Hollandse en Vlaamse meesters 1550-1700'', Centraal Museum, Utrecht en Amos Anderson Art Museum, Helsinki 2004, pp. 75–119 (English edition: ‘The symbolism of fish, fisherman, fishing gear and the catch’, in Liesbeth M. Helmus (ed.) ''FISH. Still lifes by Dutch and Flemish masters 1550-1700'', Centraal Museum, Utrecht and Amos Anderson Art Museum, Helsinki 2004, pp. 75–119)
*‘Frans van Mieris: Questions of Understanding’, in Quentin Buvelot (ed.), ''Frans van Mieris 1635-1681'', Washington (National Gallery of Art) 2006, pp. 44–61, 216-218
*‘De iconografische voorraadkamer’, in Mariëtte Haveman, Eddy de Jongh, Ann-Sophie Lehmann en Annemiek Overbeek (eds.), ''Ateliergeheimen. Over de werkplaats van de Nederlandse kunstenaar vanaf 1200 tot heden'', Lochem-Amsterdam 2006, pp. 162–187
*‘Angenehme Täuschung und angenehmes Dunkel’, in: exhib. cat. ''Schein oder Wirklichkeit? Realismus in der Niederländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts'', Emden (Ostfriesisches Landesmuseum) 2010, pp. 10–19
*‘Rembrandt in de ogen van Peter Vos’, in: ''Face Book. Studies on Dutch and Flemish portraiture of the 16th-18th centuries. Liber amicorum presented to Rudolf E.O. Ekkart on the occasion of his 65th birthday'', Leiden 2012, pp. 175–182
*‘"Things that intimate more than they say". On the iconological approach to seventeenth-century Dutch art’, in: exhib. cat. = ''Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Painting''. Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, Budapest 2014–2015, pp. 82–101
*‘The Heights of Inspiration. Hercules Segers’s "delight in strangeness"’, in: cat. tent. ''Under the Spell of Hercules Segers. Rembrandt and the Moderns'', Museum het Rembrandthuis 2016-2017, pp. 43-59
*‘Een verhandeling over de mens in wekelijkse afleveringen’, in: ''Siegfried Woldhek. Zie zo'', Zwolle 2017, pp. 146–160
*‘Onverbloemde en getransformeerde zelfportretten van Peter Vos’, in: Anna Cecilia Koldeweij & Jos Koldeweij (eds.), ''De verbeelder verbeeld(t). Boekillustratie en beeldende kunst'', Nijmegen 2017, pp. 28–35
*‘Blufvertoon met de benen. Verwarrende associaties naar aanleiding van Jan Steens ''De burger van Delft''’, in: ''Een opmerkelijk oog. Essays opgedragen aan Jeroen Stumpel ter ere van zijn emeritaat''. Article 19 (December 2017), pp. 20–26
*‘De kneedbare Rembrandt. Hoe Hollandse kunst wordt gebruikt in debatten over identiteit’, ''Ons Erfdeel'' 62, No. 2 (May 2019), pp. 88–101
online in English ‘The Malleable Rembrandt. How Dutch art is used in debates about identity’)
References
External links
Profile of Eddy de Jonghat the
Netherlands Institute for Art History
The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jongh, Eddy de
1931 births
Living people
Dutch art historians
Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
Writers from Amsterdam
Academic staff of Utrecht University