European Sculpture

About the project

Compiled by Jaap Leeuwenberg, the former curator of sculpture, the most recent published catalogue of sculpture dates from 1973. The ever-growing body of art-historical research and the long list of acquisitions made in recent decades has prompted a thorough update of Leeuwenberg’s valuable, but by now outdated reference work. Since 2009 a small team of art historians and conservation researchers have worked on the new catalogue. This research has resulted in numerous new and surprising insights that are published in this catalogue for the first time.

In the coming months and years, systematic catalogue entries for every work in the collection will appear on the museum’s website, often accompanied by multiple views in high resolution. Netherlandish sculpture, from the Middle Ages to successive periods, forms the starting point. Sculpture from other European countries will follow thereafter.

Aim of the project

In its final form, the catalogue will comprise over eleven hundred comprehensive entries, reflecting the in-depth and up-to-date knowledge and insights on all the objects in the collection European sculpture of the Rijksmuseum.

Related publications

• J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973
• F. Scholten, Gebeeldhouwde portretten/Portrait Sculptures, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1995
• F. Scholten and G. de Werd, Een hogere werkelijkheid: Duitse en Franse beeldhouwkunst 1200-1600 uit het Rijksmuseum Amsterdam/Eine höhere Wirklichkeit, Deutsche und Französische Skulptur 1200-1600 aus dem Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, exh. cat. Cleves (Museum Kurhaus Kleve) 2004-06
• F. Scholten, M. Verber et al., From Vulcan’s Forge: Bronzes from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 1450-1800, exh. cat. London (Daniel Katz Ltd.)/Vienna (Liechtenstein Museum) 2005-06

Partners and sponsors

This project was made possible in part by an anonymous donor.