Rate My Professor Elizabeth den Hartog

Elizabeth den Hartog, Dr., is a University Lecturer in the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society within the Faculty of Humanities at Leiden University. She has held her position since 1986, teaching courses on art and architecture up to 1600. Her academic career includes serving as director of the Castle Foundation Holland and Zeeland from 2001 to 2012. Additionally, she acted as guest-keeper at the Maastricht Bonnefanten Museum, where she produced a monograph on Romanesque sculpture in Maastricht churches that underpinned the exhibition "The Road to Paradise" in 2003-2004. Den Hartog has provided expert advisory services to the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, contributing studies on medieval sculpture in several Dutch churches, including those in Doorn, St. Eusebius in Arnhem (co-authored with Ronald Glaudemans), Utrecht Cathedral, and the now-lost church of Kerkdriel between 2011 and 2016.

Her research specializes in medieval art and architecture, focusing on architectural sculpture and its relationship to buildings, medieval relics and reliquaries, building inscriptions before 1600, graffiti in the Netherlands before 1800, and iconographic motifs such as gargoyles, raptors, plants, beasts, chickens, and cocks in art before 1600. Current projects encompass forthcoming publications including Anno Domini: Nederlandse bouwinscripties van de 10de eeuw tot circa 1600 (2025), Tekens aan de wand: de oude graffiti in de Haarlemse Grote of St.-Bavokerk (2025), and studies on medieval cellars in Leiden. Den Hartog has authored key books such as De Romaanse sculptuur in de abdijkerk van Rolduc (2008), De bouwsculptuur van de Utrechtse Dom (2015), Over profeten, wijze en dwaze maagden en de middeleeuwse mens (2018), and Monsters in het koor (2019). Notable articles include "Raptors. On the iconography of an enigmatic capital in the nave of Beverley Minster" in The Antiquaries Journal (2022) and "On the meaning of Gargoyles" in Bulletin du Centre d'Études Médiévales Auxerre (2023).