Jacob van Ruisdael's "Landscape with Waterfall"

Zeph Benders is a paintings conservator who studied culture and science at the University of Maastricht. In 2006 he completed the postgraduate programme for the conservation of easel paintings at the Limburg Conservation Institute with a thesis on the painting technique of Nicolaes Maes (1634-1693). He worked at the Rijksmuseum from 2006 until 2009. He is currently working at the Cultural Heritage Agency.

Marrigje Rikken specializes in sixteenth- and seventeenth century Dutch and Flemish paintings, prints and drawings. She studied art history at the University of Amsterdam and graduated cum laude with a Research Master’s degree in Art Studies. She worked at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam from 2006 to 2008 as Assistant Curator of Dutch Seventeenth-Century Paintings. She has been working in the Art History Department of the University of Amsterdam since 2009, and in 2010 she embarked on her PhD at Leiden University.