G.J. Hoogewerff

The Hoogewerff-Hendrix Fund for Italy Studies is also named after Godefridus Johannes Hoogewerff (1884-1963), in appreciation of his inspiring pioneering work in the study of Italian culture by Dutch researchers, especially also with regard to the interactions between Italy and the Low Countries. Hoogewerff studied literature and history at Utrecht University, obtaining his doctorate in 1913 with a thesis on Dutch painters in Italy in the XVIth century: the history of Romanism, and was professor of iconography in Utrecht from 1950 to 1955.

He played a key role in the foundation and flourishing of the two Dutch academic institutes in Italy: he was attached to the institute in Rome from 1909 to 1950, from 1921 to 1950 as director, and on his initiative the institute in Florence was founded in 1955, which he personally headed until 1958. Of his numerous publications, the studies on Dutch artists in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy are still considered a guide and benchmark in this field.