The project will use established methods of technical art history in order to examine the materials and techniques of Adrian Vanson and Adam de Colone, two Netherlandish artists who worked in Jacobean Scotland. Religious persecution and fortuitous trade relationships led many Protestant Netherlanders to emigrate to Britain in the sixteenth century. Vanson and de Colone are notable amongst this group as they were patronised by the highest echelons of society: Vanson was James VI’s court painter and de Colone was the most prominent painter working in Scotland in the 1620s (who also painted the king). Thomson, whose publications remain a seminal source, constructed their core oeuvres in the 1970s. However, little technical examination has been undertaken on their works to date. The project will focus on the technical examination of paintings in the National Galleries of Scotland collection with the aim of clarifying issues of attribution and identity and illuminating their workshop practices.
Caroline recently completed her Ph.D (jointly hosted by the Department of Conservation and Technology at the Courtauld and the National Portrait Gallery, where she was a member of the Making Art in Tudor Britain team) which focused on issues of workshop practice, authorship and cross-cultural dialogues between native and émigré artists working in England at the turn of the seventeenth century. Previously, Caroline graduated with first class honours in Fine Art from the University of Edinburgh/ Edinburgh College of Art and from the Conservation of Easel Paintings course at the Courtauld. Caroline contributes to the Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon and has published on de Critz and Fuseli.
The event will also include a presentation by the 2016-17 Associate Fellow, Anna Koopstra, on Investigating Saint Jerome in his study by Hendrik van Steenwijck the Younger.