The recent wave of renovations of Netherlandish museums inspired this volume of the Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, which focuses on display as a key approach to the visual culture of the Netherlands from the early modern period to the present. The volume opens with a critical discussion of the newly reinstalled Rijksmuseum. It includes analyses of the depiction of aggressive interactions with artworks, the ways in which meaning is mobilised by changing displays of paintings by Rubens, and the politics of display in a seventeenth-century palace and in Fascist and De Stijl...

Works of art are material and materials have meaning. They determine form, style, and effect and are often chosen intentionally by artists to convey artistic ideas and reinforce expressive effects. An artist's choice of materials both limits and opens up technical possibilities. Depending on their geographical occurrence, rarity or composite nature, materials are valued, compared and imitated; processes that stimulate innovation in the arts. Materials are also charged with manifold cultural connotations, conveying power, beauty, splendor or humbleness. Despite the richness of the topic, the...