Nils Buttner

Nils Büttner (born 9 February 1967 in Bremen) is a German art historian and curator, known for his research on Peter Paul Rubens and Early Modern European art. Büttner is Professor of History at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart and serves as chairman of the Centrum Rubenianum in Antwerp, where he is the main editor the Corpus Rubenianum, the definitive catalogue raisonné of Rubens’s work. Büttner has also written widely on artists such as Hieronymus Bosch, Johannes Vermeer, and Rembrandt, and is active in contemporary debates on art attribution and the use of artificial intelligence in authentication. His work combines historical research with public engagement through major exhibitions, including the internationally recognized Rubens in Genoa (2022–2023). == Biography == Büttner studied art history, folklore, and classical archaeology. He received his doctorate from the University of Göttingen with the dissertation Die Erfindung der Landschaft: Kosmographie und Landschaftskunst im Zeitalter Bruegels ("The Invention of Landscape: Cosmography and Landscape Art in the Age of Bruegel"). From 1998 to 1999, he worked as a research assistant at the University of Göttingen, cataloguing the collection’s drawings. He later held positions at the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Braunschweig—first as a curatorial trainee (1999), then as an exhibition curator (2000–2001). Between 2001 and 2008, he was a research associate at the Technical University of Dortmund. In 2004/05, he completed his habilitation at Dortmund with the study Herr P. P. Rubens. Von der Kunst, berühmt zu werden ("Mr. P. P. Rubens: On the Art of Becoming Famous"). Büttner has since held the Chair for Medieval and Modern Art History at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart. His academic work focuses on the visual culture of the Early Modern period in Germany and the Netherlands, as well as the history of printmaking and book illustration. He is also the chair (since 2021) of the Centrum Rubenianum in Antwerp and general editor of the Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, the catalogue raisonné of the works of Peter Paul Rubens. Büttner’s Hieronymus Bosch: Visions and Nightmares was praised for its reliance on historical documentation and its effort to separate fact from myth. However, a 2016 review in The Telegraph, by Tim Smith-Laing, criticized the book's English translation and its academic prose style, and noted that new research had already cast doubt on the attribution of several works discussed in the volume. Despite these critiques, the book was recognized as part of a broader scholarly and public reevaluation of Bosch during the quincentenary of the artist's death. In 2023, Büttner published a widely discussed book on the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, Vermeer: De schilder die de tijd stilzet ("Vermeer: The Painter Who Stops Time"). The book was praised for its clarity and accessibility, offering readers a contextual understanding of Vermeer's life, technique, and iconography