An object can tell a story, too

Choose one object rather than an entire period: a portrait, box, textile or piece of tableware. Record the institution and identifier before your interpretation. An identifier helps you return to the same object when an exhibition title or page address changes.

Read its record in three layers. First come descriptive data: material, dimensions, dating, technique and inscriptions. Second are the catalogue’s findings, such as a proposed attribution or ownership history. Third is your interpretation. Do not collapse the layers into a single assertion. “Attributed to” remains an attribution, and a broad date range must not become an exact year.

Royal Collection Trust provides the Royal Collection catalogue, while RKD offers wider visual and portrait documentation concerning art of the Low Countries. They serve different purposes. One helps locate a particular collection record; the other may suggest a version of a composition, bibliography or artist. Visual resemblance begins a comparison; it does not establish identity.

Provenance is the trace of origin and ownership. Ask separately where an object was made, who commissioned it, when it entered a collection and what is documented today. A portrait depicting a brooch does not by itself establish the brooch’s present whereabouts. A copy of a painting can depict clothing older than the copy itself.

Exercise: compare two catalogue entries for similar portraits. Record identifier, artist or attribution qualifier, date, material, dimensions and ownership history. Mark one agreement and one difference that needs explanation. If you intend to publish an image, check the rights for that particular file separately.