After he had finished high school in Amersfoort, Godefridus Johannes Hoogewerff (Amersfoort 1884-1963 Florence) studied Dutch literature and history at Utrecht University. He wrote his thesis on the life on board of the Dutch East Indies merchant vessels in the seventeenth century. With the encouragement of his tutor Otto Opperman and of Samuel Muller Fzn., a historian and a keeper of the public records as well as a prominent figure in the historical community and a member of the ‘Commission on government publications’ (Commissie voor ‘s Rijks Publicatiën), Hoogewerff accepted a job at the Aartsbisschoppelijk Museum. His work here was to catalogue the old and illustrated manuscripts. Hoogewerff was above all a very hard-working student, who had traveled extensively through Europe. He became the assistant of W. Vogelensang, the first professor on the chair of history of art to be appointed in Utrecht (1907).
In 1909 Hoogewerff was appointed Assistant at the Dutch Historical Institute (Nederlandsch Historisch Instituut) in Rome. He was instructed to study the sources for Dutch art history and his first art historical paper, published in 1911, deals with an uncle and nephew, who shared the same name, Willem van Nieuwland. At the same time, Hoogewerff was an very active journalist. He stayed a correspondent for the newspaper Algemeen Handelsblad till 1925. From 1912 on he received the title of secretary at the Institute. In this same year he completed his dissertation Nederlandsche schilders in Italië in de XVIe eeuw (de geschiedenis van het romanisme). Hoogewerff graduated in 1925 and married the Finnish Filma Maya Tamminen one year later.
Hoogewerff worked hard on his research and this resulted in a progressive career. From February through October 1915 he fulfilled the position of interim director of the Dutch Institute, replacing Gisbert Brom (1864-1915), who had suddenly died. He kept this office once more from 1917-1919, because the arrival of the new director, Mgr. Dr. A.H.L. Hensen (1854-1932), was delayed as the Italian authorities initially refused him a visa. After Hensen retired in 1924, Hoogewerff succeeded him.
Between 1915-1923 Hoogewerff established a vast international network. His most elaborate publication concerning the history of art was his De Noord-Nederlandse schilderkunst (1936-1947). He obtained international fame as an art historian, since he was the first to define iconology as his expertise at the sixth International Congress of Historical Science in Oslo. But apart from art historical related studies, Hoogewerff was also very interested in the historical aspects of his cases. He did a lot of archival research and published many articles on the history of culture, but also on the history of navigation and historiography. Besides that he did extensive research on the presence and achievements of the Dutch artists and scholars in Rome. His dissertation focused on that specific topic and many publications of resources as well, for example his most famous work De Bentvueghels. He was especially interested in the Dutch painter Jan van Scorel, to whom he devoted many of his works.
Next to his (art) historical works, Hoogewerff was able to take the relationship between The Netherlands and Italy to a higher level, for example by constructing a building for the Dutch Historical Institute in 1933. Part of this project was financed by a Dutch organization, Het Huis voor Kunsten en Wetenschappen te Rome, which was founded by Hoogewerff as well. In 1920 the publication of a yearbook started under Hoogewerff’s supervision. These Mededeelingen van het Nederlandsch Instituut te Rome still are an important vehicle to publish the results of studies executed by the Insitute staff members, students and visiting scholars.
Hoogewerff was convinced that he had to send out a message of certain scientific authority. People sometimes mocked the Institute as being ‘Villa Hoogewerff’, since his regally furnished apartments comprised about half of the building. He gave the impression of being a very complex and distant personality, but that must have just been an impression since he was very good in creating his networks, that it was almost impossible to be real. He told his friend Alexander Byvanck, a professor from Leiden University, more than once that it felt like he was being under-appreciated in The Netherlands as a scientist.
Everything he had worked for before the Second World War was threatened in 1940. Hoogewerff decided to stay in Rome, to hold on to the Institute and his position. It would not be right to depict Hoogewerff as a collaborator to the regimes of Mussolini and Hitler, even though he had decided to stay in Rome. He was not interested in the ideas of Nazism at all, though the fascist regime was not his greatest enemy. That must have been one of the reasons why Hoogewerff was in the position to play a great part in the Roman Unione and he was very close to the supervision of German libraries right after the war had come to an end.
Hoogewerff kept the office of Director until 1950. He went back to The Netherlands to become extraordinary professor in iconography and early Christian art in Utrecht. In 1955 he founded the Academic Art Historical Institute in Florence, which he served as director for another three years. A member of the Accademia di San Luca, foreign member of the section Schone Kunsten of the Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van Wetenschappen en Schone Kunsten in Belgium and a correspondent for the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, Hoogewerff’s expertise was recognized by art experts and collectors.
Hoogewerff passed away in Florence on March 25, 1963. A part of his personal books was bought by the Institute in the same year. During his lifetime, Hoogewerff had already donated 222 books about Dutch literature previously owned by his father. Another part could be obtained in 1958. Even after his death in 1966 many books, filling a total of thirteen boxes, were sent to Rome.
A complete bibliography of G.J. Hoogewerff is published in Mededeelingen van het Nederlands Historisch Instituut te Rome 31 (1961) 23-45.
Literature:
Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland II (Amsterdam 1985) 241-243.
Mededeelingen van het Nederlands Historisch Instituut te Rome, 31 (1961) 49-54.
H. Cools en H. de Valk, Institutum Neerlandicum MCMIV-MMIV. Honderd jaar Nederlands Instituut te Rome (Hilversum 2004) 29-31, 47.
Tags: A.H.L. Hensen, Aartsbisschoppelijk Museum, Alexander Byvanck, Filma Maya Tamminen, Florence, Gisbert Bron, Huis voor Kunsten en Wetenschappen te Rome, Jan van Scorel, Mededeelingen van het Nederlandsch Instituut te Rome, Otto Opperman, Samuel Muller Fzn, Villa Hoogewerff, W. Vogelensang, Willem van Nieuwland
