Curator Medieval Department

Annemarieke Willemsen

Dr. Annemarieke Willemsen

Curator Netherlands Medieval Department

tel: +31 (0)71 5163 168
fax: +31 (0)71 5149 941
send an e-mail

Annemarieke Willemsen (1969) studied Art History & Archaeology at Radboud University Nijmegen, where she received her Ph.D. in 1998 for a thesis about late medieval children's toys. From 1993, she participated in various exhibition projects, including the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. Since 1999 she has been working at the National Museum of Antiquities as curator of the Medieval Department. There she is responsible for all finds from Dutch soil from the post-Roman era. Her interest focusses particularly on material culture (as a phenomenon as well) and daily life in the Middle Ages, with an emphasis on the child and play in the past. Her trademark is the combination of sources: objects, images and texts, always in 'connection' with one another. In terms of subject matter, Annemarieke is ‘omnivorous': a Late Middle Ages specialist who at the National Museum of Antiquities is mainly occupied with Merovingian and Carolingian assemblages, who also published on the Romans and Vikings and also knows the objects from the 16th and 17th centuries.

Expertise

Objects of daily use from the Roman era until the 17th century.
Material culture, daily life and the use of various types of sources.
Play, toys, education and family in Roman, medieval and early modern times.

Key research projects

Medieval children's toys (1994-1998)
Roman toys (1999-2002)
The Vikings in the Netherlands (2003-2005)
Schools and Pupils in Western Europe, 1300-1600 (2001-2007)
Late-medieval bel decorations (2006-)
The Material Culture of Student Life, 1200-1600 (2008-)

Publications

Books

Kinder delijt, middeleeuws speelgoed in de Nederlanden, Nijmegen 1998 (Ph.D.-thesis).
Romeins speelgoed, Kindertijd in een wereldrijk, Zutphen 2003.
Vikings! Raids in the Rhine-Meuse Delta 800-1000, Utrecht 2004 (exhibition catalogue).
Back to the Schoolyard, The Daily Practice of Medieval and Renaissance Education, Turnhout 2008.
Dorestad, een wereldstad in de Middeleeuwen, Zutphen 2009 (exhibition catalogue).

Articles in English

Medieval Children's Toys in the Netherlands, Production, Sale, and Trade. In: G. de Boe/F. Verhaeghe (red.), Material Culture in Medieval Europe, Papers of the 'Medieval Europe Brugge 1997' Conference (vol. 7), Zellik 1997, 405-412.
'Images of Toys, The Culture of Play in the Netherlands around 1600', in: J.B. Bedaux/R. Ekkart (eds.), Pride and Joy, Children's Portraits in the Netherlands 1500-1700, Ghent/Amsterdam 2000, p. 61-71.
A. Willemsen, Out of Children's Hands, Surviving Toys and Attributes, in: J.B. Bedaux/R. Ekkart (eds.), Pride and Joy, Children's Portraits in the Netherlands 1500-1700, exh.cat. Frans Halsmuseum Haarlem/ Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, Gent/Amsterdam 2000, 297-303.
'Playing with Reality, Games and Toys in the Oeuvre of Hieronymus Bosch', in: J. Koldeweij/ B. Vermet/ B. van Kooij (eds.), Hieronymus Bosch, New Insights Into His Life and Work, Rotterdam 2001, p. 192-199.
The Archaeology of Medieval Schools, in: G. Helmig/ B. Scholkmann/ M. Untermann (red.), Centre * Region * Periphery, Medieval Europe Basel 2002, Hertingen 2002, 421-426.
Scattered across the Waterside: Viking Finds from the Netherlands, in: R. Simek/U. Engel (red.), Vikings on the Rhine, Recent Research on Early Medieval Relations between the Rhinelands and Scandinavia, Wien 2004, 65-82 + Plate 4-8.
The Game of the Month. Playful Calendars in Ghent-Bruges Books of Hours, in: B. Dekeyzer / J. Van der Stock (eds.), Manuscripts in Transition: Recycling Manuscripts, Texts and Images. Proceedings of the International Congress held in Brussels (5-9 November 2002), Leuven 2005 (Corpus of Illuminated Manuscripts 15), 419-430.
Looking through Classroom Windows: Daily Life at a Latin School in the Netherlands around 1500, in: A.M. As-Vijvers, J.M.M. Hermans & G.C. Huisman (red.), Manuscript Studies in the Low Countries, Proceedings of the ‘Groninger Codicologendagen' in Frieslan,d 2002, Groningen 2008, 2-19.
The Age of Play, Children's Toys and the Medieval Life Cycle, Ludica 13-14 (2007-2008), 169-182.
Late medieval bling-bling, A collection of decorated leather and metalbase mounts in the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden', in: H. Clevis (ed.), Medieval Material Culture, Studies in Honour of Jan Thijssen, Zwolle 2009, pp. 55-81.
‘Bosch, Hieronymus', ‘Campin, Robert', ‘Children in France', ‘Coster (Koster), Laurens Janszoon', ‘Dymphna, St', ‘Geertgen van Haarlem', ‘Gertrude, St', ‘Hegius, Alexander', ‘Justus of Ghent', ‘Utrecht Psalter', in: Robert E. Bjork (ed.), Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages [4 vols.], Oxford 2010, vol. 1: 279, 329, 380-381; vol 2: 455, 523, 688, 716, 773; vol. 3: 915; vol. 4: 1679-1680.
Welcome to Dorestad: A History of Searching and Finding ‘the Dutch Troy', in: A. Willemsen & H. Kik (red.), Dorestad in an international Framework, New Research on Centres of Trade and Coinage in Carolingian Times, Turnhout 2010, 7-16.
Dorestad discussed. Connections and conlcusions, in: A. Willemsen & H. Kik (red.), Dorestad in an international Framework, New Research on Centres of Trade and Coinage in Carolingian Times, Turnhout 2010, 179-185.

Edited volumes in English

A. Willemsen & H. Kik (red.), Dorestad in an international Framework, New Research on Centres of Trade and Coinage in Carolingian Times (Proceedings of the first 'Dorestad Congress' held at the National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden, June 24-27, 2009), Turnhout 2010.

Key exhibitions

Medieval Mystery (National Museum of Antiquities, 2003)
Down Town. Discover urban archaeology of the Netherlands (National Museum of Antiquities, 2004)
Vikings! (Bonn, Utrecht and Roskilde, 2005-2006)
Brilliant Bijoux (National Museum of Antiquities, 2007)
Dorestad. Medieval Metropolis (National Museum of Antiquities, 2009)
(coming up) The Netherlands in Merovingian Times (National Museum of Antiquities, 2013)