Collections
The Centre for Art Historical Documentation (CKD) manages a range of interesting and unique collections. It is especially due to the efforts of Prof. Dr. Frits van der Meer, Professor of Medieval Art History, that the collection of the CKD was expanded. In the early years, the focus was on early Christian and medieval art forms, ranging from architecture to decorative art. In the course of time, the collection increased so that nowadays all art forms from all periods are amply represented.
Thanks to the digitalisation of a large part of the collection and the acquisition of the iconographical classified Van der Krogt-collection, the archives of the CKD are the broadest and best-categorised art-historical archive of Netherlands.
An overview of our collections is shown below. One can order images from one of these collections here.
General Collection Art History and Archeology
The photo archives contain approximately 500,000 photos and reproductions of artworks. Thematic categorisation has been done for portraits, these are available through the Portrait gallery database.
The microfiche collection is extremely large, consisting of approximately 1,500,000 images of art in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Portugal, France, Italy, Spain and the Benelux. The collection includes approximately 125,000 slides of art history and archaeology, which are all digitalised and available through the Faun-database (Dutch only).
Print Collection
The Print Collection of the CKD includes approximately 3,000 pieces, mostly purchased during the years 1965-1983. The collection can be typified as diverse, with some very precious specimens and is for educational purposes. Amongst the 364 seventeenth-century engravings there are several well-known engravers (for example, from the school of Goltzius and Rubens). The majority of the prints date from the eighteenth and nineteenth century.
Van der Krogt Collection
In 2006, the CKD acquired the Van der Krogt collection. This collection had been put together over a period of 35 years by the Carmelite, Gerard van der Krogt.
The collection contains more than 300,000 images of visual art with an emphasis on religious art.
What is special about this collection is that the images are organised iconographically. With this collection, the CKD possess the largest iconographically ordered image collection in the Netherlands.
Sibbelee Collection
The Sibbelee Collection encompasses the entire oeuvre of the photographer Hans Sibbelee, more than 15,000 photographs that were made between about 1940 and 1987. The collection is digitalised and for a large part available online. There you can read more about the photographer, the different areas of the collection and the books the Centre has published about Hans Sibbelee. The Radboud University owns the copyright to the Sibbelee Collection.
Verspaandonck Collection
J.A.J.M. Verspaandonk (1918-2002) was curator of manuscripts and old prints of the Rijksmuseum Het Catharijneconvent in Utrecht. He was fascinated by the side panels, arm-rests and misericords of choir stalls and in a few years, he managed to build up an extensive photographic archive. The Verspaandonk Collection contains 5,500 images and twice as many negatives of choir stalls in Belgium and the Netherlands and the North-western border area of Germany (Niederrhein). In 2003 the collection was transferred to the CKD for research. The digitalisation project of the collection and the online database are called Stalla.
Gerlach Collection
The Gerlach Archive is named after the collector Father Gerlach ofm. cap. (1901-1971). At the age of 18 Simon Schümmer, born in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, entered the Capuchin monastery in 's-Hertogenbosch where he received the name Gerlach. His superiors sent him to the University of Leuven where he studied history. He also had a great interest in the history of art. He collected and classified over 80 boxes with among other countless pictures, prayer booklets and articles about saints and other Christian topics.
Pferschy Collection
The Austrian photographer Othmar Pferschy, (1898-1984) made hundreds of photographs of churches, monuments and landscapes in Turkey for our Art History Department. Furthermore, he has taken photographs in Iran (Persepolis). His black and white photos show the cultural richness of Turkey.
