The Crux of the Matter: The Truths and Fictions of Crucifixions

How did Roman crucifixions work? And did medieval artists depict the Crucifixion accurately? An ancient historian and a medievalist combine forces to shed their light on matters of the cross.

Lieke Smits and Renske Janssen • October 17, 2019

A PhD, Like Life, Is A Process

For Leonor Veiga, a PhD is a metaphor for life. It is an exercise of resilience, a journey, a process with many up and down moments, and fast and slow phases. Through this balance, she feels, writing surges. In this post, Leonor reflects on her experience.

Leonor Veiga • April 30, 2018

Jeff Koons' Broken Artwork and Tactile Desire

After a visitor broke Jeff Koons' Gazing Ball (Perugino Madonna and Child with Four Saints), which was exhibited in the Nieuwe Kerk, the curator expressed his surprise about visitors touching art. In this post I argue that it is actually common practice.

Lieke Smits • April 18, 2018

Of Parrots and Men. The Contemporary Phenomenon of Interspecies Art

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of the term “artist”? Do artists have to be human?

Dorothee Fischer • January 11, 2018

Dolls for Adults

Dolls as devotional aids, liturgical props and objects of desire: on the various ways medieval adults interacted with dolls and lifelike sculptures.

Lieke Smits • November 23, 2017

Anke Bangma: “Renewal can also be found in reinterpreting the historical."

In this post, Anke Bangma tells the LUCAS blog about strategical approaches she has undertaken toward the inclusion of contemporary Indonesian art within the national collection of The Netherlands.

Leonor Veiga • September 20, 2016

Helena Spanjaard: “Hey, this is funny, they make modern art here”

In this post Dutch art historian Helena Spanjaard recounts her journey to become the first Dutch art historian on Indonesian modern art in the Netherlands, and the unfolding of the discipline of modern Indonesian art history in her country.

Leonor Veiga • July 21, 2016

Interview Helena Spanjaard: “Indonesian modern art should be studied by art historians”

For the first post on the field of Indonesian art in the Netherlands, the LUCAS member Leonor Veiga interviewed the renowned Dutch art historian Helena Spanjaard, who recently launched a new book.

Leonor Veiga • June 30, 2016 • 1 comment

Talking about Feelings

Writing a history of emotions is no easy task. How can we find out how people felt in the past? Where can we find traces of their emotions?

Lieke Smits • May 19, 2016

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