The ECARTICO database is a comprehensive database which was built to collect, organize and analyze data concerning painters, art consumers, art dealers and others involved in the cultural industry of Amsterdam and the Low Countries in the early modern period. The database currently contains biographical and demographic data on some 12.000 persons, more than half of whom were painters active in the Northern Netherland and the Southern Netherlands in the period before ca. 1720.
As in other art historical databases, users can search and browse for data on individuals or make selections of certain types of data. However, the ECARTICO database also allows users to visualize and analyze data on artists and their 'milieus'.
The database provides researchers, as well as the general public with a wealth of art historical information. It builds upon biographical data compiled by Pieter Groenendijk (mostly from biographical dictionaries) during the 1990s and the early 2000s, which he graciously allowed us to rebuild into a research database. Since 2007, a team of researchers, research assistants and students is continuously updating and expanding the database.