ABSTRACT
Hans van de Waal’s main subject looked at the function of artworks, especially paintings and prints. Van de Waal’s high esteem for craftsmanship was inherited from his uncle, the portrait painter Jos Seckel, and of course from his father, whose activities he had carefully observed. The DIAL (Decimal Index of the Art of the Low Countries) and Iconclass, which was the large-scale successor of DIAL, occupied Van de Waal’s daily activities. From 1934 onwards he worked as an assistant in the Print Room of Leiden University. Initially, Iconclass was designed to classify the collections of the Print Room. Iconclass proves that, when needed, Van de Waal was not only a systematic man but also flexible. Van de Waal was responsible for the general design of Iconclass, but gradually his role became that of a distant controller of the process, with his assistants taking over many of the responsibilities involved.
