Author Description

The Centraal Museum in Utrecht is the oldest municipal museum in the Netherlands. A major part of the collection of paintings up to 1600 dates back to 1838, when Utrecht founded its city museum. These paintings derive from the city's churches, cloisters and charitable institutions, and were confiscated after the iconoclasm or handed over voluntarily to the city government. Since its existence, the collection has been enlarged by donations, loans and acquisitions. Today, the Centraal Museum houses the largest and most important collection of Utrecht paintings worldwide. Important works by Jan van Scorel form the core of this collection. In the richly illustrated catalogue, all of the paintings are discussed in their original, historical context. Apart from information about the iconography and attribution, attention is paid to the technical research and restoration history of the paintings. In addition, the catalogue includes general articles on the history of the collection and on the results of technical investigation.