Word: vermeere
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...cheered, jeered, envied and snubbed. This unusual woman viewed the streets of Cambridge and Boston as canals leading to her inside-out, quasi-Venetian palace just across from the Museum of Fine Arts, on the Fens of Boston. With a mere handkerchief she outbid Europe for a Vermeer, and with her husband's shipping fortune she bought a great collection of Italian paintings...
Even before Berenson began to cultivate Mrs. Jack's taste in the arts, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Gardner had bought a few paintings on their own- based on their own likes and dislikes. The Concert by Vermeer was bought at the Hotel Druout auction galleries in Paris in 1892; the little Dutch girl seated at the piano with the light streaming in through the window captivated Belle Gardner. In the Gardner Museum's Dutch room today, where the light falls on the stone floor, the Vermeer shines as one of the most exquisite of the artist's works anywhere...
...would have been more interesting to show Canaletto's view of Venice next to Guardi's Venice rather than placing a Tintoretto in between. And why is Vermeer's Young Woman between Claude Lorrain's turbulent Trojan Women and Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women? For chronology or for a calm between two storms? Why not pair the Vermeer with Holbein's portrait of a German merchant? Pairing would at least make the viewer question why the two paintings were paired. Even pointing out both artists' attention to detail, would be better than just letting the viewer admire...
Leaving the exhibition, one can't help but remember a kaleidoscope of images: Sassetta's Magi colorfully dotting a hill, the light passing through the stained-glass window of Vermeer's work, the strength of Picasso's Gertrude Stein, Rousseau's Tropics, with a monkey that looks like he's blowing bubbles with orange bubble gum, or Pollock's Autumn Rhythm defying the limits of its canvas. As if each color of Morris Louis' "unfurled" is a work from the show, one sees them falling off to the sides leaving a space of white light shining from the center...