Femke Diercks
At Home in the
Seventeenth Century
Monday, April 14, 2025
2 PM via Zoom
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The Dolls' House of Petronella Oortman, ca. 1686-1710, oak cabinet, veneered with tortoiseshell and pewter. H. 8 feet 10 1/2 in. (255 cm), W. 6 feet 3 3/4 in. (190 cm). Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, no. BK-NM-1010.
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This lecture will explore the role of Decorative Arts in general and ceramics specifically in the research and planning for the exhibition “At Home in the 17th Century,” which will open at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in October 2025. The exhibition seeks a holistic approach in which objects of different materials are studied in the context in which they were used, for instance, the domestic environment. The exhibition follows a day in a household in the Dutch Republic in the 17th century and focuses on all of the domestic activities that took place there: from housekeeping to cooking and eating, and from child-rearing to working.
Selection of objects found in the cesspit that belonged to the Sonck family. Archeology, West-Friesland, Netherlands.
Femke Diercks is head of Decorative Arts at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. She is a ceramics specialist and was one of the curators for "Asia in Amsterdam" (an exhibition in 2015/2016 at the Rijksmuseum and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts). She is currently involved in the re-conceptualization of the Rijksmuseum's permanent installation and the exhibition “At Home in the 17th Century,” for which there will be a published catalogue.