Marks on Art

Scope

The aim of the Marks on Art project is to create a freely accessible database of all marks found on fine and applied arts, including workshop marks, master’s marks, guild brands, transport marks, and positioning marks. These marks provide unique information about the dating of the artwork and its place of origin, the production process and the origin of the materials, shedding light on aspects such as attribution and authenticity. Marks are not always visible, as they are often located on the top, bottom, or back of an artwork. Bringing all available information on marks into an easily accessible database therefore offers unprecedented research opportunities. Marks on Art will be integrated into the existing infrastructure of RKD Research, allowing cross-references between artworks, artists, and technical research data, such as dendrochronological research results. Each record in Marks on Art contains a detailed description of a mark, accompanied by one or more images. Marks on Art has been developed in close collaboration with specialists in the field. 

Marks on Art: Sculpture 

Marieke van Vlierden, a specialist in medieval sculpture, and Seppe Roels, a conservator of polychrome wood sculptures, were the founders of Marks on Art: Sculpture. Together with Dr. Margreet Wolters, they designed the structure of the database. Over the past few years, Seppe Roels and Marieke van Vlierden, occasionally assisted by Catherine Schepens and Olivia Puzzolante, have documented hundreds of marks at the Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Museum M, Leuven; Museum voor Kunst & Geschiedenis, Brussels; Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen; and several private collectors. The Landschaftsverband Rheinland (LVR) generously shared the marks documented by Nora Schlag on Southern Netherlandish altarpieces in churches along the Rhine. 

The entry of all collected data was also carried out by Marieke van Vlierden, Seppe Roels, and Catherine Schepens, as well as by Gwendolyn Herrema. Iris Ippel described the frottis (pencil rubbings of marks) from the archive of retable specialist Herman de Smedt. Marks on Art: Sculpture, which will continue as part of the Early Netherlandish Sculpture project starting next year, is overseen by Dr. Suzanne Laemers.

The RKD received a generous gift for Marks on Art: Sculpture from the estate of collectors Jacques Schoufour and Ingeborg Martin, as well as a donation from Thomas Leysen. Marc Peez, head of restoration at the LVR – Amt für Denkmalpflege im Rheinland, provided financial support for the documentation of marks in the Rhineland. 

Marks on Art: Painting 

Marks on Art: Painting focuses on the digitization and identification of marks on the backs of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish paintings in close collaboration with Prof. em. Dr. Jørgen Wadum. The starting point is Wadum’s dataset of thousands of marks on panels and copper supports, collected during visits to collections and auction houses. This extensive dataset was donated to the RKD in 2022. Since then, the RKD has been working on entering and supplementing the data, including through a public call and international collaborations with museums for additional material. 

The project is led by Dr. Angela Jager, and data input is carried out by Gwendolyn Herrema. The RKD welcomes Jørgen Wadum as an associated researcher for the duration of the project. The RKD received a Digital Art History Grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and a grant from the Mondriaan Fund for this part of the project. Jørgen Wadum received a three-month Conservation Guest Scholarship at the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI). Art dealers Richard Green and Rafael Valls, both based in London, contributed to the project at an early stage.