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Svetlana Alpers. 2054 words. Vermeer’s Hat: The 17th Century and the Dawn of the Global World. by Timothy Brook. Profile, 272 pp., £18.99, July 2008, 978 1 84668 112 7. Timothy Brook’s subject in Vermeer’s Hat is the ‘global world’ of the 17 th century. Brook is a historian of China who wants to consider the lure of China for others.
- Overview
- Early life
- Artistic training and early influences
Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch artist known especially for his paintings of 17th-century daily life. The 36 or so of his paintings that survive show a remarkable purity of light and form. Vermeer was not well known outside of Delft and Amsterdam until the 19th century, when the French critic Étienne-Joseph-Théophile Thoré reassessed the artist’s work.
What is Johannes Vermeer famous for?
Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665) is probably Johannes Vermeer’s most famous work, but he is also known for his genre paintings. His subjects are often women in interior scenes completing chores, as in The Milkmaid (c. 1660), or engaged in private moments, as in Woman Reading a Letter (c. 1663).
How was Johannes Vermeer educated?
Surprisingly little is known about Vermeer’s decision to become a painter. He registered as a master painter in the Delft Guild of Saint Luke on December 29, 1653, but the identity of his master(s), the nature of his training, and the period of his apprenticeship remain a mystery.
What was Johannes Vermeer’s family like?
Delft, where Vermeer was born and spent his artistic career, was an active and prosperous place in the mid-17th century, its wealth based on its thriving delftware factories, tapestry-weaving ateliers, and breweries. Within Delft’s city walls were picturesque canals and a large market square, which was flanked by the imposing town hall and the soaring steeple of the Nieuwe Kerk (“New Church”). It was also a venerable city with a long and distinguished past. Delft’s strong fortifications, city walls, and medieval gates had furnished defense for more than three centuries and, during the Dutch revolt against Spanish control, had provided refuge for William I, prince of Orange, from 1572 until his death in 1584.
Vermeer was baptized in the Nieuwe Kerk. His father, Reynier Jansz, was a weaver who produced a fine satin fabric called caffa; he was also active as an art dealer. By 1641 the family was sufficiently prosperous to purchase a large house containing an inn, called the Mechelen, on the market square. Vermeer inherited both the inn and the art-dealing business upon his father’s death in October 1652. By this time, however, Vermeer must have decided that he wanted to pursue a career as a painter.
In April 1653 Vermeer married Catherina Bolnes, a young Catholic woman from the so-called Papenhoek, or Papist’s Corner, of Delft. This union led him to convert from the Protestant faith, in which he was raised, to Catholicism. Later in that decade, Vermeer and his wife moved into the house of the bride’s mother, Maria Thins, who was a distant relative of the Utrecht painter Abraham Bloemaert.
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Surprisingly little is known about Vermeer’s decision to become a painter. He registered as a master painter in the Delft Guild of Saint Luke on December 29, 1653, but the identity of his master(s), the nature of his training, and the period of his apprenticeship remain a mystery.
Since Vermeer’s name is not mentioned in Delft archival records during the late 1640s or early 1650s, it is possible that, as with many aspiring Dutch artists, he traveled to Italy, France, or Flanders. He also may have trained in some other artistic centre in the Netherlands, perhaps Utrecht or Amsterdam. In Utrecht Vermeer would have met artists who were immersed in the boldly expressive traditions of Caravaggio, among them Gerrit van Honthorst. In Amsterdam he would have encountered the impact of Rembrandt van Rijn, whose powerful chiaroscuro effects enhanced the psychological intensity of his paintings.
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Stylistic characteristics of both pictorial traditions—the Utrecht school and that of Rembrandt—are found in Vermeer’s early large-scale biblical and mythological paintings, such as Diana and Her Nymphs (c. 1653–54; also called Diana and Her Companions) and Christ in the House of Mary and Martha (c. 1654–56). The most striking assimilation of the two traditions is apparent in Vermeer’s The Procuress (1656). The subject of this scene of mercenary love is derived from a painting by the Utrecht-school artist Dirck van Baburen in the collection of Vermeer’s mother-in-law, while the deep reds and yellows and the strong chiaroscuro effects are reminiscent of Rembrandt’s style of painting. The dimly lit figure at the left of the composition is probably a self-portrait in which Vermeer assumes the guise of the Prodigal Son, a role that Rembrandt had also played in one of his own “merry company” scenes.
In the early 1650s Vermeer might also have found much inspiration back within his native Delft, where art was undergoing a rapid transformation. The most important artist in Delft at the time was Leonard Bramer, who produced not only small-scale history paintings—that is, morally edifying depictions of biblical or mythological subjects—but also large murals for the court of the prince of Orange. Documents indicate that Bramer, who was Catholic, served as a witness for Vermeer at his marriage. Although it would appear that Bramer was, at the very least, an early advocate for the young artist, nowhere is it stated that he was Vermeer’s teacher.
Vermeer was intensely preoccupied with the behavior of light and other optical effects such as sudden recessions and changes of focus. These qualities in Vermeer’s work may have been inspired by an interest in the camera obscura (which projects actual images), but its importance to the artist has been greatly exaggerated.
Feb 19, 2008 · Book looks at globalization in the 1600s, growing ties between Europe and the rest of the world, and particularly the impact of China on the rest of the world. Sounds like a modern story. Wrote it to surprise the reader, get the reader to realize that the globalization of the world goes all the way back, at least to the 17th century.
Jul 24, 2013 · Introduction. Johannes Vermeer (b. 1632–d. 1675) is heralded as one of the greatest artists of the 17th century, the golden age of Dutch painting. His status is all the more remarkable given that only thirty-six paintings have come down to us today. Vermeer was born in Delft to Reformed Protestant parents of relatively modest means.
Jun 11, 2009 · As a young man, Brook was cycling through Holland and had a minor accident in the city of Delft. A woman who had seen his accident took the scraped, muddied cyclist in for a meal and some rest. Thus began Brook’s fascination with Delft, which soon came to include the paintings of its most famous artist, Vermeer.
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Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World is a book by the Canadian historian Timothy Brook, in which he explores the roots of world trade in the 17th century through six paintings by the Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer. [1] It focuses especially on growing ties between Europe and the rest of the world ...
