Troubleshooting coloured grounds: developing a methodology for studying Netherlandish ground colours

The 'Down to the Ground' project attempts to build an overview and deeper understanding of the spread and use of coloured grounds in the Netherlands during the period 1550-1650. A project of this scale requires broad collaboration, the incorporation of previously collected data, and tools and protocols that allow meaningful combinations of research data on colour with techniques ranging from visual observation to chemical analysis. This paper identifies the successes and difficulties of the projects that have brought us to our current point in the study of coloured grounds and proposes a way forward in the context of DttG.