Introduction
The Down to the Ground (DttG) database began as a research tool within the NWO-funded project Down to the Ground: A Historical, Material and Technical Study of Coloured Grounds in Netherlandish Painting, 1550–1650 at the University of Amsterdam.1 Conceived to bring together technical observations of coloured grounds from both published and unpublished sources, it evolved into a structured digital resource capable of supporting comparative art-historical research. The present RKD Study marks the first public release of this database and the open-source framework on which it is built.2
Our collaboration grew from a shared recognition that technical art history requires not only close looking and materials analysis, but also robust data infrastructures to connect dispersed observations. The original dataset, compiled by Hall-Aquitania as part of her doctoral research on the introduction and spread of coloured grounds in the Netherlands between 1500 and 1650, was transformed into an interactive, relational database in collaboration with Paul J.C. van Laar.3 Since 2025 it has been hosted by the RKD. The database serves as an example of how the institute’s digital ecosystem—particularly RKDartists, RKDimages, and RKDtechnical—can support individual research projects by offering reliable metadata in a sustainable infrastructure.
The DttG database represents a transition from a single locally stored Excel spreadsheet to a relational database implemented through the Django web framework. In this environment, each category of information is structured into interconnected tables, with built-in validation ensuring internal consistency. The system was developed not by professional data scientists but by technical art historians, and its structure therefore reflects the priorities of research practice: clarity of relationships, traceability of sources, and interpretability of results. Switching to this approach improves data integrity and scalability, while raising broader questions about how art-historical data can be structured, verified, and maintained over time. The focus of this study extends beyond just the technical design. It considers the database as both a research instrument and a methodological model: a proof of concept for how structured, open data can support reproducible and collaborative scholarship in technical art history.
The tools and data presented here form the technical foundation for work published by Hall-Aquitania and Van Laar in the Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art and in Hall-Aquitania’s dissertation Common Grounds: The Introduction and Spread of Coloured Grounds in the Netherlands 1500–1650 (2025).4 Together, these studies have demonstrated that coloured grounds were not marginal phenomena but central to the evolution of painting practice during a period of rapid artistic and economic change in Netherlandish art. By integrating these insights within a digital framework, the DttG database now enables such material findings to be queried, compared, and expanded systematically.
The development of this resource was made possible through the support of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and the University of Amsterdam, in collaboration with the RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History. Data was gathered from the DttG project partners: the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), the Frans Hals Museum (Haarlem), the Mauritshuis (The Hague), the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA, Antwerp), the National Gallery (London), and the Statens Museum for Kunst (Copenhagen). The RKD now hosts the database as part of its commitment to open, sustainable research infrastructures. Future iterations will further align the DttG database with RKDtechnical, ensuring interoperability with other technical documentation resources.
This study therefore serves a dual purpose. It offers the DttG database as a practical research tool for scholars of Netherlandish painting and as a model for translating complex technical art historical data into structured, sustainable form. By publishing both the data and the underlying code, we aim to encourage other researchers to build upon this foundation, expanding the collective capacity of technical art history to share, connect, and interpret its material evidence.
Notes
1 NWO project number VC.GW17.029. “Down to the Ground: A Historical, Visual and Scientific Analysis of Coloured Grounds in Netherlandish Paintings, 1550-1650,” University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture, accessed October 8, 2025, https://www.uva.nl/en/shared-content/subsites/amsterdam-school-for-heritage-memory-and-material-culture/en/projects/down-to-the-ground/down-to-the-ground.html
2 The database can be accessed here: https://downtotheground.rkdstudies.nl/. See Section 3 of this study for instructions.
3 Moorea Hall-Aquitania, “Common Grounds: The Introduction, Spread, and Popularity of Coloured Grounds in the Netherlands 1500-1650” (University of Amsterdam, 2025).
4 Moorea Hall-Aquitania and Paul J.C. van Laar, “Under the Microscope and Into the Database: Designing Data Frameworks for (Technical) Art Historical Research,” Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art 17, no. 2 (forthcoming 2025); Hall-Aquitania.