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Annelies Abelmann MA

PhD candidate

E-mail: a.m.abelmann@rug.nl

Area(s) of interest: Architectural History, Art History, Religious History & Theology

Cohort/Start PhD: 2022-2023

“Ik heb geplant, Apollos heeft water gegeven, maar God heeft doen groeien”: een studie naar de interieurkunst van Friedrich Wilhelm Mengelberg in vier Willibrorduskerken in Nederland in de periode 1869-1913
 “I planted, Apollos watered but God made grow”: a study of Friedrich Wilhelm Mengelberg’s interior art in four Willibrordus churches in the Netherlands in the period 1869-1913.

University of Groningen, Faculty of Theology and the Study of Religion, per 1-9-2023 Faculty of Religion, Society, and Culture
Supervisor(s): Prof. Dr Todd Weir, Ass. Prof. Dr Andrew Irving Dr Eelco Nagelsmit
Aanstelling: 2019-2025

This thesis focuses on the interior decorations produced by the workshops of Friedrich Wilhelm Mengelberg (Cologne 1837-1919 Utrecht) in four churches dedicated to S. Willibrord, built in the period 1869-1913 in cooperation with the clerical Guild of S. Bernulphus in Utrecht (founded in 1869).
The production of the interior decorations will give insight into the functioning of the international Roman Catholic network and patronage system and its impact on the construction and design of churches and their surroundings. The study concentrates on analysing the practice and perception of socio-religious spaces thus far.
The outcome of this research will determine Mengelberg’s position in the Netherlands and the Rhineland and provide a positioning of the Willibrordus churches in his oeuvre.