Princess

Dr Katharina Van Cauteren (b. 1981) is head of the Chancellery of The Phoebus Foundation. A passionate art historian and exhibition maker, she has showcased artists from Flanders and the Low Countries around the world. She took Rubens to India for the first time, introduced the Dutch to Jacob Jordaens, and brought Emile Claus and Rik Wouters to the UK. She has sent Memling, Metsys, Rubens and Van Dyck from Tallinn (Estonia) to Denver (USA) and points beyond. In Belgium she has spotlighted the Flemish masters of the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in a variety of new ways and masterminded exhibitions on such diverse themes as the Antwerp Academy, lace, and portraiture. She also collaborates with other creatives – fashion designers, contemporary artists, production houses and radio makers. Invariably the result is a total experience, a roller-coaster ride through art history. Dr Leen Kelchtermans (b. 1986) studied Art History at KU Leuven and completed a Research Master’s in the same discipline at the University of Amsterdam. While a pre-doctoral fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), she wrote her dissertation on the topographical battle scenes of Brussels painter Peter Snayers (1592-1667). In this first oeuvre study, she applied an interdisciplinary research method to explore the layers of meaning in early modern war paintings. Her doctorate was awarded the Erik Duverger Prize of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium. She went on to work as a postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven and as a visiting professor at LUCA School of Arts. Currently, Leen is an art-historical researcher at the Chancellery of The Phoebus Foundation. She immerses herself (and delights) in its extensive top collection of Baroque masters. Among other things, she studied Jacob Jordaens’ family network in The Hague and succeeded in reconstructing his Antwerp home’s reception room, where the ceiling pieces about the love story of Cupid and Psyche were on display. Leen lectures at national and international conferences, and publishes her research in national and international books and journals.