3 PhD Positions in Art History at Utrecht University

The art of the Dutch ‘Golden’ Age has many non-Western elements, from the Islamic scarf of Vermeer’s Girl with Pearl Earring to Rembrandt’s Chinese porcelain. The project ‘The Dutch Global Age’ (NWO-Vici) examines how Netherlandish art has contributed to a global worldview and demonstrates the contemporary relevance of Netherlandish Old Masters in a globalizing world.

Utrecht University is seeking three candidates for PhD positions in this project. The team will explore interactions between the arts of the Netherlands and the world beyond Europe. It will combine different approaches: technical art history (how were non-European materials used and imitated by Netherlandish artisans?), iconography (how did Netherlandish artists represent the world symbolically?), and economic art history (what were the routes, volumes, and prices of artefacts that circulated globally)? Each PhD project will single out specific museum objects as case studies. The team will also contribute to an exhibition that connects the historical questions to topical societal debates.