Stefan Huygebaert is an Art Historian (Ghent University, 2011). He graduated with a master thesis on neogothicism in nineteenth century painting of the Academy of Bruges, Belgium. In May 2019, he defended his PhD thesis entitled Visual ideals of Law & Justice: with Prof. Georges Martyn, Prof. Dirk Heirbaut, and Prof. Marjan Sterckx as supervisors. This research scrutinizes the iconology of law in nineteenth century Belgium, and analyzes how the notions of ‘law’ and ‘justice’ were communicated and legitimated via art towards the Belgian population. Originally funded by the BelSPo IAP Justice and populations. The Belgian experience in international perspective, 1795-2015, Stefan conducted his research as a PhD fellow of the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) at the Ghent Legal History Institute (Faculty of Law and Criminology), within the Social History since 1750 research group (Department of History), and at the Department of Art History, Musicology and Theatre Studies. In 2013-2014 and 2016-2017, Stefan was a Stipendiat at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz (Max-Planck-Institut), within the Minerva Research Project Nomos of Images: Manifestations and Iconology of Law led by Carolin Behrmann.
From October 2019 onwards, Stefan scrutinizes picturesque and symbolist visions in fin-de-siècle portrayals of cities like Bruges and Venice as a FWO post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Art History, Musicology and Theatre Studies..
Scientific interests: art history, long nineteenth century, legal iconology, legal and political history, artistic revivalism, symbolism, the picturesque, Bruges
