Ron Spronk

Ron Spronk

Professor

Department of Art History and Art Conservation

People Directory Affiliation Category

Research Interests

Early Netherlandish painting; technical art history; applications of digital imaging in art history; digital humanities

Biography

PhD, Groningen University, 2005

Ron Spronk is a professor of Art History with a special interest in painting materials and techniques. He studies the genesis of easel paintings (from Van Eyck to Mondrian) with techniques such as infrared reflectography and X-radiography. Findings from technical examinations often hold critically important art historical information.

Originally from the Netherlands, he moved to the USA in 1993 to start work towards his Ph.D. at Indiana University, Bloomington. Before coming to Queen鈥檚 in 2007, he worked at the Harvard Art Museums for 13 years where he undertook several interdisciplinary research and exhibition projects, closely collaborating with other art historians, conservators and conservation scientists.

Among his many publications are two award-winning books:  (with Harry Cooper) was awarded the 2002 College Art Association/Heritage Preservation Joint Award for Distinction in Scholarship and Conservation, and  (with John O. Hand and Catherine Metzger) received the 2007 George Wittenborn Memorial Book Award from the Art Libraries Society of North America.

In addition to his professorship at Queen鈥檚, Ron Spronk also holds the Jheronimus Bosch Chair at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. He is currently participating in the , which resulted in a major exhibition in 鈥榮-Hertogenbosch in 2016 and in a new monograph on this enigmatic artist. He is also closely involved in the current conservation/restoration treatment of the Ghent Altarpiece, for which he coordinated the innovative on-line research tool . For the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, he co-curated the 2018-19 exhibition  and the web application  At Queen鈥檚, he is currently establishing QU-MoLTAH, a mobile laboratory for technical art history. With this facility, small groups of graduate students will be performing technical examinations in museums in Ontario and beyond.

Recent Publications

Alice Hoppe-Harnoncourt, Elke Oberthaler, Sabine P茅not, Manfred Sellink and Ron Spronk (eds), Bruegel, The Hand of the Master, The 450th Anniversary Edition; Essays in Context, Veurne, 2019.

Bruegel, The Hand of the Master, The 450th Anniversary Edition; Essays in Context book cover

Matthijs Ilsink, Jos Koldeweij and Ron Spronk, From Bosch鈥檚 Stable; Hieronymus Bosch and the Adoration of the Magi, Zwolle 2018. 

Hieronymus Bosch and the Adoration of the Magi book cover

Elke Oberthaler, Sabine P茅not, Manfred Sellink and Ron Spronk, with Alice Hoppe-Harnoncourt, Exh. Cat. BruegelThe Hand of the Master, Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum) 2018; published in Dutch (Hannibal), English (Thames and Hudson) and German (Prestel).

Bruegel, The Hand of the Master book cover

Matthijs Ilsink, Jos Koldeweij, Ron Spronk, Luuk Hoogstede, Robert Erdmann, Rik Klein Gotink, Hanneke Nap and Daan Veldhuizen, Hieronymus Bosch, Painter and Draughtsman, Catalogue Raisonn茅, London 2016. (Also published in French, German and Dutch).

Hieronymus Bosch, Painter and Draughtsman, Catalogue Raisonn茅 book cover

Luuk Hoogstede, Ron Spronk, Robert Erdmann, Rik Klein Gotink, Matthijs Ilsink, Jos Koldeweij, Hanneke Nap and Daan Veldhuizen, Hieronymus Bosch, Painter and Draughtsman, Technical Studies, Brussels and London 2016.

Hieronymus Bosch, Painter and Draughtsman, Technical Studies book cover

Ron Spronk, All by Himself? Remarks on painting technique and attributions in regard to Hieronymus Bosch, Nijmegen 2011.

All by Himself? Remarks on painting technnique and attributions in regard to Hieronymus Bosch book cover

John O. Hand, Catherine Metzger and Ron Spronk, Prayers and Portraits; Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych, Washington D.C. 2006.

Prayers and Portraits; Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych book cover

Molly Faries and Ron Spronk (eds), Recent Developments in the Technical Examination of Early Netherlandish Painting: Methodology, Limitations, and Perspectives, Cambridge, MA and Turnhout 2003. 

Recent Developments in the Technical Examination of Early Netherlandish Painting: Methodology, Limitations, and Perspectives book cover

John O. Hand and Ron Spronk (eds), Essays in Context; Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych, Cambridge, MA and New Haven 2006.

Essays in Context; Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych book cover

 

Harry Cooper and Ron Spronk, Mondrian, The Transatlantic Paintings, Cambridge MA and New Haven 2001.

Mondrian, The Transatlantic Paintings book cover

Maarten van Bommel, Hans Janssen and Ron Spronk (eds), Inside Out Victory Boogie Woogie, Amsterdam and Chicago 2012. 

Inside Out Victory Boogie Woogie book cover