Word: vermeere
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Last week Vermeer needed no intro duction. Commemorating the centenary of the publication of Thoré-Bürger's monograph-still the source work on the artist-as well as the 150th jubilee of the Mauritshuis, The Hague has staged an exhibition titled "In the Light of Vermeer" (scheduled to open...
Louvre later this month), probably the best art show to be seen in Europe this year. Of only 29 undisputedly authentic Vermeer paintings, Mauritshuis Director A. B. de Vries has managed to bring together eleven of the greatest, the largest such gathering since a 1696 Amsterdam auction. Setting them off is a complementary exhibition of masterpieces, ranging from Caravaggio to Cézanne, which echo Vermeer's serenity of spirit and magical treatment of light...
Mistaken Identity. It was this quality of light that enabled Thoré-Bürger to bring recognition to Vermeer's art where others had failed. Long a victim of mistaken identity, Vermeer had been confused with Jan van der Meer of Utrecht; moreover, his paintings had often been attributed to a better-known Delft artist, Pieter de Hooch, who also painted immaculate Dutch interiors. But in the late 19th century, the French impressionists, seeking to present light through color rather than a painted effect, were astonished to discover Vermeer's virtuosity with the same technique two centuries...
...Astronomer, for instance, they noticed how Vermeer illuminated a dim interior with a brilliant shaft of light falling through a window. In View of Delft, his only known landscape, they discovered Vermeer's use of pointillé-tiny dabs of pigment that look like crystals of light. In portraits, his delicate lighting seemed to illuminate the very soul of his subjects. The age of Manet was understandably dazzled...
Geometry & Optics. Once Vermeer's genius was recognized, it was difficult to understand how it could have been so long shrouded in obscurity. His serenity, harmony and purity of execution stand out from the raucous reality of his contemporaries like a vision from a nightmare. Yet Vermeer was very much a man of his time. Geometry was the cornerstone of 17th century scientific investigation; well aware of it, Vermeer laid out his paintings in a wizardly arrangement of planes, lines, cubes and cones. He also used the camera obscura, a forerunner of photography. In all probability, he was introduced...