Nederlandse architectuurhistorici en het buitenland tot ongeveer 1960

Abstract

The foreign relations of the historiography of architecture in both the Netherlands and other countries make up an interesting field of gradually changing contacts. During the nineteenth century, the scientific discipline of art history, which included the history of architecture, emerged in Germany. And although serious interest in ‘antiquities’ and architectural monuments emerged in the Netherlands as well in that same period, it wasn’t until 1907 that the academic study programme Art History was launched. It included the history of architecture. Historiography by and for architects will be left aside here. During both the nineteenth century and a large part of the twentieth century, those interested in the history of architecture focused primarily on Dutch architecture. They concerned themselves with issues related to efforts to preserve the historical heritage – which meant paying attention to legal aspects – but this also meant that research was required in order to determine which buildings were worthy of preservation. Contacts with other countries, especially Germany, primarily revolved around these issues and quite often foreign examples were followed. Gradually, during the first half of the twentieth century, a number of architectural historians who worked for the Dutch Architectural Monument Service (‘Monumentenzorg’) started attending international conventions abroad. In the Netherlands, the first international convention of art historians was held in 1925 in Breda; besides many Dutch professionals, it attracted experts from Belgium and Germany. A second convention, however, wouldn’t take place until 1939, on the occasion of the foundation of the Dutch Association of Art Historians. In the Netherlands, the knowledge of international scientific views and perspectives was dispersed mainly through the Bulletin van de Nederlandsche Oudheidkundige Bond [Bulletin o f the Dutch Archaeological Society], predominantly in the form of reviews of the international literature. Thus, quite slowly and gradually, this international perspective also began to characterize the historiography of architecture in the Netherlands.