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For a week, they stood in the murderous heat on 30-meter-high scaffolding, meticulously photographing the ceiling of a 16th-century church in Naarden with heavy cameras. The end goal was a 3D model of the detailed paintings of biblical scenes, mapped by a group of international students in collaboration with Factum Foundation. Art historians Sanne Frequin and Daantje Meuwissen led this summer school in August 2024.

“Grote Kerk Naarden approached us with research questions following the restoration,” says Sanne. “We were given a unique opportunity from the ArtLab to work with fragile heritage, a great responsibility for us and for our students.”

It was also a new experience for the students. Research master's student Izzy Stone: “It was new for us that all kinds of parties came along that we had to consider. The mayor came by, and we got a lot of media requests from journalists. It was sometimes hard to make time for that.”

Societal question

During Summer School, the students presented their work to a large group of more than 100 interested people. Izzy: “It was very special that we could show the ceiling paintings in great detail to these people. They had obviously never been able to see that up close before.”

Sanne: “This was a community engaged learning project, with students working on a societal question. For the students, this involvement of the public was new; after all, they are used to working in their own academic cocoon. Now the research questions came from the church; the students, under our guidance, tried to contribute to that through the latest technology. That really made this a unique project.”

Dr. Sanne Frequin is a lecturer and researcher in Digital Art History in the Faculty of Humanities
Dr. Daantje Meuwissen is lecturer and researcher Early Modern Art History of Northern Europe at the Faculty of Humanities
Izzy Stone is research master's student in Art History

Text: Els Aarts
Photo: Rafael Smit