Interdisciplinary Research Project on the Errera Sketchbook

27 October 2026 / Brussels

The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium are launching an interdisciplinary research project on the Errera Sketchbook, an exceptional volume containing more than 150 drawings by an unidentified artist from early sixteenth-century Antwerp. Combining art-historical research with advanced imaging techniques, the project aims to uncover the sketchbook’s history, materials and artistic significance while ensuring its preservation for future generations. Through its multifaceted approach, the project also aims to serve as an international model for the study of sketchbooks within a heritage context. The project was launched on 15 September 2026. The museum’s curator Stefaan Hautekeete is in charge of the project, which involves several international specialists. Its findings will be presented in a major exhibition at the RMFAB in 2030–2031, accompanied by a scholarly catalogue. For more information, see the museum’s website.

Jef Schaeps Retires from the Leiden University Print Room

15 October 2026 / Leiden

In August, Jef Schaeps retired from the Leiden University Libraries (UBL), where he had served as curator of prints and drawings, succeeding Janno van Tatenhove. Since 1991 he worked at the Print Room / Institute of Art History at Leiden University, which left its historic premises at Rapenburg 65 at the start of this century to become part of the UBL’s department of Special Collections. Schaeps served as secretary of our journal until the end of 1999. His most significant recent publications appear in the catalogues Leiden viert feest! Highlights from an Academic Collection (2014) and For Study and Delight. Drawings and Prints from Leiden University (2016), which he also co-edited. He will be succeeded on 1 January 2027 by Dr Tom van der Molen, who is currently a senior curator at the Amsterdam Museum and is not yet a familiar figure in the world of Old Master drawings and prints.

Dr. Jeroen Giltaij Passed Away at Age 78

1 December 2025 / Rotterdam

Jeroen Giltaij (1947-2025), a graduate from the University of Amsterdam (PhD in 1997, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), worked most of his professional career at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (1972-2012). There he started as an assistant in the department of Prints and Drawings and was appointed the first chief curator of Old Master Paintings and Sculpture in 1979. His collection catalogue of the drawings of Rembrandt and his school was published in 1988, ten years after the manuscript was finished. Although from then on most of his time and energy were devoted to the research, publication, acquisition and presentation of Dutch paintings from the seventeenth century, especially by Rembrandt, Jeroen regularly also published on drawings by Rembrandt and by various other Dutch masters such as Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan van der Meer van Haarlem and Jan de Braij, including an article about the latter in our magazine (52, 2023). His last publication is on drawings by the landscape painter Jan Looten, included in Lines of Friendship, the posthumous Liber Amicorum for the late Robert-Jan te Rijdt, which was released just two weeks ago (see news item below).

Our thoughts are with his family and friends.

See also the in memoriam on the Codart website, where attention is also paid to his many publications and exhibitions in the field of Old Master paintings.

 

Lines of Friendship commemorating Robert-Jan te Rijdt

17 November 2025 / Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

During a well-attended gathering in the Auditorium of the Rijksmuseum the first copies of this comprehensive book (560 pages, 700 illustrations) were presented to the daughter and other family members of Robert-Jan te Rijdt, the Emeritus Curator of Drawings at the Rijksmuseum who passed away in November 2024.

No fewer than 57 authors contributed 55 art historical essays to this impressive book, which was originally intended as a Liber Amicorum to be presented to him on his 70th birthday on 11 August this year. Many of his friends and colleagues, including five members of the Delineavit et Sculpsit editorial board, wrote essays commemorating Robert Jan, who was a member of our board for 30 years.

It is a wide ranging publication with subjects from the late 16th century to the present day, but with a strong focus on the 18th century. All visual arts are represented: paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, applied arts, and garden architecture.

The editing was done by our former chairman Charles Dumas, together with Charles Kang, Marleen Ram and Gajus Scheltema. The design and layout are by Dumas together with the publisher Evelyn de Regt. Copies can be ordered from her publishing house Primavera Pers in Leiden.

 

Changes in the Editorial Board

30 October 2025 / The Hague

Last Summer Joyce Zelen (Rijksmuseum) decided – much to her regret – to leave the editorial board because museum work and family did not allow enough time and energy to continue her voluntary work for our periodical. She was the editor-in-chief for issues 47 (together with Peter van der Coelen), 49 and 53 and co-editor of the special issue 55. We fully understand her decision and greatly appreciate her dedication and stimulating contributions to our editorial team during the last 6 years.

Fortunately, the vacancy has now been filled by another young colleague from the Rijksmuseum staff: Saskia van Altena (33). Saskia studied Art History at the University of Amsterdam and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. She is a specialist of Northern- and Southern Netherlandish drawings and prints from the 16th and 17th centuries. As a researcher at the Rijksmuseum, Saskia is currently coordinating the re-launch of the online collection catalogue of Dutch drawings from the Golden Age. As a freelance curator, she is involved in exhibition projects at the Fondation Custodia (Collection Frits Lugt) in Paris. Saskia has published in Master Drawings, Simiolus and the Rijksmuseum Bulletin on a variety of subjects, including the drawings of Abraham van Diepenbeeck (1596-1675) and the etchings of Dancker Danckerts (1634-1666). She has also contributed to various exhibition catalogues, including most recently Un œil passionné. Douze ans d’acquisitions de Ger Luijten (Paris, Fondation Custodia, 2024) and From Scribble to Cartoon. Drawings from Brueghel to Rubens in Flemish Collections (Antwerp, Museum Plantin Moretus, 2023).