Wj
2000
by
NDE
Publishing*
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or
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means,
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photocopying,
permission
reserved.
Printed
and
Italy
a
registered
business
style
of
missing, we are deal-
dedicated
are
in
it
unique
The living light
color,
it
Vermeer
painted
this
are autograph, and they tend to move the paint-
ing's execution until
ac-
tivity.
ce-
hand, while in The Geographer
he is
learned man (seen also
as
it
Vermeer's
self-portrait,
which
the
made by
Valentin,
and
Terbrugghen,
whom
objects like
pressed in simplified, immobile forms
and
contributes
to
creating
a
of color is fundamental to the transposition from a real,
do-
the
on canvas. The light is captured
and bounces off small reflective
sur-
musical instruments, hair, jewel
light
streaming
through
becomes
mates
color
a
picture
glow
the light
sources. Minute
pointillisme
which
stitutes
art,
which
captures
everyday life, through
speculative, relationship
celestial
globe,
representing
everything
of the treatise
vogue
in
picture). Most critics
agree in assigning
Kepler
vestigation of
of all the telescope.
the moon.
numerous portraits.
Cor-
a
ic scholars, seem
ten-
of this painting
paintings, furthermore,
Mercator to
SILENCE
AND
LIGHT
I
brandt,
and
to
hotelier and art merchant in Delft. Some
painters, like Egbert Van der Poel, had
made
it
a
habit
in
Delft.
• His
1653 be
his lifetime,
but this
the acclaim
teenth
to
dis-
•
in
a muffled
was
neglect
was
also
the
difficulty
In Search
a site of
of
each
painting,
an
aspect
forms,
whether literary or figurative, and one that makes the artist
one
most
acquaintance with his
of memory, which,
reborn
through
made
on
scene is im-
:--*.:4?..
In reality, this interior,
is
Weighing Gold and
side
him
of simple,
the painting's
in
his
everyday
world;
he reproduced faithfully
again and again,
furnishings. His painterly
surrounding him.
us:
depicts a
typical little
their
VIEW OF DELFT
well, he
there the re-
production of reality,
frontality.
Vosmaer for ex-
was located;
viewer
into
and
(or
representation of
Vermeer,
own way and to suit his
own
pur-
Allegory
of
cepted
scribed
Sacrifice
of
by
Jor-
daens.
through
symbols
tory (she
the
white
and
piction
of
-
breast
sug-
gest
from the music made by his
daughter.
• Other
Vermeer's paintings. As
dicates, these
The masterftilly behind her hangs
contrasting blues and
is
to light
up his
re-
for years,
in fact
of
cat-
identify
his
earliest
limited, and includes fewer than fifty paintings.
• Naturally, this
of them, Han An-
ing the years of the
Second
cialized
profitable sales,
a
 Vermeer
to
his
after
ability to execute
telling
world
die period of the
(where
Dutch had
16*
two
century.
But
during
teach the secrets
true for Vermeer,
fa
wel-
time to
is depicted in genre
re-
in
relationship
significant
„
,,
__^,,
MARY AND MARTHA
side of the table,
work of the Carava^esque
Terbru^en,
a
it shares with other similar
paintings cannot
same painting included in Lady Standing at a Virginal,
i.e.
a
Vermeer's mother-in-law. The
the preceding one, as does the bright
tablecloth in
organization of tiie
cused on the middle
set
Thus
the
Other
haps
the
meer's. The
diffused light that does not
disturb, but rather en-
brightly
painted
fig-
the foregroimd, placed di-
her
hands.
A
table creates the space
in
The
painter
delicate
far
paintings
by
Vermeen
for^ound, (he
center, the wine
same wWch
comer of
the
setting
of
Couple
Vermeer
paints
a
litfle alley where
cated; we have no
painter renders the
silently
cloth,
table,
the
to the
stant in both paintings.
The man leaning on
one of
be moved
1672-73.
But
Vermeer's death.
A LADY
WT^mNG
painting of a yoxmg girl seated at a table, lifting
her
ed.
The
blues
and
musical instrtunents.
and
verti-
the
on the ri^t
any case one ofthe artisf
s
painter himself.
a
is
the presence of a planetary sphere on top of the
cupboard and
heavens than of
the earth. The
as
a
pair
eighteenth century in Amsterdam,
(1670)
the one in The
her letter.
Once ^ain,
ing, prevails in this
preg-
ofTruth and
but the theme of the painting hanging behind the
woman points us toward a higher virtue.
THE
CONCERT
(1665-66)
the
measurements
the wall
egance
is
rendered.
The power and harmony of the colors
shape the forms as tiiey are struck by the li^t Once
again
we
see the yellow ermine-trimmed jacket,
and the jewel chest on the table is the same as the
one in
Vermeer's worit The virginal shown here
is
Music Lesson and
Lady Standing at
a Virginal (even
slightly different).
of
the
artist, who here
seems more a
much
a Love
contain: some documents useful for understanding different aspects of Vermeer's life and work;
the
fundamental
stages
in
the
life
location
essential bibliography
known andhighly
a poem published by Arnold Bon in 1668 in the
Description
lines,
are however
But
happily
Vermeer, who
testimony regarding the authenticity
Vermeer
was
serv-
of
the
made his decision. Hendrick Fromantiou, a
painter, art expert, and adviser to the Elector,
had
serious
doubts
Huygens,
position. Final judgment, to be passed in
front
of
a
paint-
the return to
of
the
whole
af-
fair
handling
of
known
times the
not
is
a
great
Canaletto.
behind the
that
a
hypotheses suggest
his
main
they were married
just
Delft.
the
1650-56.
the current
vance
1662.
the
painting
of
Vermeer
inherited
Guild
of
St
ment on
1675.
Sudden
notice is registered in the Oude Kerk
(Old
Church).
WHERE
TO
SEE
VERMEER
of
The Love
Letter, 1667;
oil on
Mary and
Martha, c.
1670;
Jug,
1658-60;
1660;
The Lute
Seicento, Turin