Biography

Marrigje Rikken studied art history at the University of Amsterdam and graduated cum laude with a Research Master's degree in Art Studies. She worked at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam from 2006 to 2008 as Assistant Curator of  Dutch seventeenth-century Paintings. She has been working in the Art History department of the University of Amsterdam since 2009. In 2010 she embarked on her PhD at Leiden University. She specializes in Dutch and Flemish paintings, prints and drawings of the Early Modern Period.

Fields of interest

• Art and Science
• Animal imagery
• Book illustrations
• Colour printing

Courses

• Visual Analysis II
• Introduction to Art History II (course coordinator)
• Academic writing and research seminar
• Iconography & Interpretation
• Paris excursion seminar
• Art of the Netherlands I (course coordinator)
• Art of the Netherlands II (course coordinator)
• Art after Vermeer (won the 2014 award of 'Best BA course of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam')

Selection of publications

• M. Rikken, 'Exotic Animal Paintings by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Roelant Savery’, in: Intersections, vol. 32 (2014): p. 401-433.
• M. Rikken, 'A Spanish Album of Drawings of Animals in a South-Netherlandish Context: a Reattribution to Lambert Lombard', in: The Rijksmuseum Bulletin, vol. 62, nr. 2 (2014): p. 106-123.  
• M. Rikken, 'Abraham Ortelius as Intermediary for the Antwerp Animal Trailblazers', in: Jahrbuch für Europäische Wissenschaftskultur / Yearbook for European Culture of Science, vol. 6, nr. 2011 (2012): p. 95-128.
• M. Rikken, 'Conrad Gessners motieven in Antwerpen: een debat in beelden', in: De Boekenwereld: tijdschrift voor boek en prent (theme issue  Veranderlijke dieren van Conrad Gessner), vol. 29, nr. 1 (2012): p. 21-32.
• M. Rikken, P.J. Smith, 'Jan Brueghel's Allegory of Air (1621) in natural historical perspective', in:  Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek (theme issue Art and Science), vol. 61 (2011): p. 86-115.
• M. Rikken, Z. Benders, 'Jacob van Ruisdael's Landscape with Waterfall ', in: The Rijksmuseum Bulletin , vol. 59, nr. 3 (2011): p. 272-285.
• M. Rikken, 'Nicolaas Verkolje en het classicisme', in: P. Knolle, E. Korthals Altes, Nicolaas Verkolje 1673-1746: De fluwelen hand , Zwolle: Waanders, 2011: p. 23-33.
• M. Rikken, 'Melchior d'Hondecoeter - Bird Painter', in: W. de Rooij, B. Meyer-Krahmer, Intolerance , Düsseldorf: Feymedia, 2010: p. 9-32. 
• M. Rikken, 'Melchior d'Hondecoeter: la fastuosidad le los aviarios barrocos', in: Numen: Revista de arte , nr. 7 (2009): p. 38-53.
• M. Rikken, Melchior d'Hondecoeter: Vogelschilder , Amsterdam: Nieuw Amsterdam 2008 (English edition: Melchior d'Hondecoeter: Bird Painter).
• M. Rikken, 'Het Utrechts Zang-Prieeltjen: een valse noot tussen de liedboeken?', in: De Zeventiende Eeuw (themanummer Klank van de stad), vol. 24, nr. 1 (2008): p. 66-88.
• M. Rikken, 'Vroege kleurendruk in Amsterdam: een onbekend zeventiende-eeuws plaatwerk van Carel Allard', in: De Boekenwereld: Tijdschrift voor boek en prent (themanummer Vroege kleurendruk in Amsterdam), vol. 24, nr. 4 (2008): p. 202-226.
• M. Rikken, E. Kolfin, 'A Very Personal Copy: Pieter van Veen's illustrations to Montaingne's Essais', in: P.J. Smith, K.A.E. Enenkel, Montaigne and the Low Countries (1580-1700) , Intersections 8, Leiden: Brill, 2007: p. 247-262.

Selection of lectures

• 'Resources vs reality: the struggle of Dirk de Quade van Ravesteyn in Prague', Speaker at the conference "Migration of natural historical knowledge between media, 1550-1680", Berlin (DE), 23-24/03/2015.
• 'Animals in Art: Antwerp and Prague as incubators of a new genre in drawings, prints and paintings', Invited speaker at the conference "Art and Science in the Early Modern Period", Wuppertal (DE), 01-03/07/2014.
• 'Exotic circulation: Real vs depicted animals in Antwerp and Prague', Speaker at the RSA conference, New York (USA), 27-29/03/2014.
• 'Antwerp's Animals Published by Claes Jansz Visscher', Speaker at the conference "Claes Jansz Visscher and his Progeny", Leiden (NL), 17-18/01/2013. 
• 'Natural History, Mythology and Religon: Animal paintings by Roelant Savery and Jan Brueghel the Elder’, Invited speaker at the conference "Natural History and the arts: from the perspective of religion and politics", Munster (DE), 24-26/05/2012.
• ‘Animal imagery and the role of natural history between 1550-1650’, Invited speaker at the conference "Dead or Alive: animals in art" at the Rubenianum, Antwerp (BE), 19/12/2011.
• ‘A New Copy Printed in Colour of Carel Allard’s Tooneel der voornaamste Nederlandse huizen en lusthoven: Publishing Coloured Prints in Amsterdam around 1700’, Speaker at the conference "Impressions of Colour”, Cambridge (UK), 08-09/12/2011.
• ‘Jan Brueghel's Allegory of Air (1621) and the different layers of meaning’, Invited speaker at the ANKK conference "Ordnungen des Sehens. Innovationsfelder der Kunsthistorischen Niederlandeforschung", Frankfurt am Main (DE), 01/10/2011.
• 'Depicting animals in Hoefnagel's age', Invited speaker at the Clusius conference, Leiden, 17/12/2010.
• 'Melchior d'Hondecoeter, een vogelexcursie', Lecture for the friends of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (NL), 03/03/2009. 
• 'Karel du Jardin in Italian atmosphere', Invited speaker at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Amsterdam (NL), 31/01/2008.
• 'Een hedendaagse confrontatie met Constable en Ruisdael', Presentation with Koen Vermeule during the exhibition  Te Gast: The Leaping Horse van John Constable in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (NL), 19/10/2007.
• 'Het raadsel in het gezongen woord: Liedbundels in het corpus van 17 de -eeuwse Noord-Nederlandse geïllustreerde literatuur', Lecture at the conference "Klank van de stad" of the Werkgroep De Zeventiende Eeuw, Antwerp (BE), 24/08/2007.
• 'A very personal copy. Pieter van veen's illustrations to Montaigne's Essais', Invited speaker at the conference "Montaigne et les Pays-Bas", Leiden (NL), 02/09/2005.

No known ancillary activities