Encoding colonialism: Study of biases of still life paintings presentation in Rijksmuseum’s digital database

Abstract

[""The decolonization of cultural institutions, such as museums, is currently widely debated as questions of repatriation and representation seep into various digital media. Although such discussions oftentimes centre on physical museums and archives, scholars are starting to investigate colonial biases present in digital collections. A recent publication by Maayan Zhitomirsky-Geffet, Inna Kizhner, and Sara Minster entitled “What do they make us see: a comparative study of cultural bias in online databases of two large museums” indicates that the Rijksmuseum has an ethically unbalanced digital database. My thesis addresses the issue of colonial history representation with special attention to the canonical 17th century Dutch still life paintings. Specifically, in my project, I will be looking at digital archives and canon interrelation, to show that still lifes are never exclusively Dutch. In conclusion, this thesis, by closely examining three still lifes from the Rijksmuseum collection, sheds new light on the rarely acknowledged issue of museum digital database underrepresentation of the Dutch colonial past.""]