Vermeer: The Complete PaintingsJohannes Vermeer (16321675) has been one of the most widely admired European painters since his so-called rediscovery in the second half of the nineteenth century. Until quite recently, the Romantic roots of writing on the Sphinx of Delft have encouraged the image of him as an isolated genius; the artists private life and religion, his supposed use of a camera obscura, and the fact that his teacher has not been identified have all contributed to an air of mystery. As this new monograph demonstrates, Vermeers life is actually well documented and his work may be more appropriately understood by placing the painter in the context of the Delft school as a whole and of Delft society. The fact that one local patron acquired about twenty pictures by the artist (only thirty-six are known today) must have been significant for Vermeers subtleties of meaning and refinements of technique and style. In the end, however, the most historical approach to Vermeer still leaves us with a master whose rare sensibility and extraordinary powers of observation may be described but not explained. |
Contents
Johannes Vermeer 16321675 | 7 |
Catalogue Appendices | 54 |
Vermeer and the Camera Obscura | 179 |
Copyright | |
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Amsterdam Amsterdam Ph artist Berlin Blankert Borch camera obscura Carel Fabritius catalogue Catharina Cavalier and Young chair cm Signed colour composition depicted Dutch effects Emanuel de Witte example figure foreground Frans van Mieris Frick Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Gerard ter Borch Glass Gowing guilders Hague Hooch Hoogstraten Ibid interior Jacob Abrahamsz Dissius Johannes Vermeer Lacemaker Leiden Letter Reader Liedtke light Magdalena van Ruijven Maid Asleep Maria de Knuijt Mauritshuis Meer meer's Metropolitan Museum Montias motifs Museum of Art Music Lesson National Gallery Nieuwe Kerk Oil on canvas Oil on wood optical paintings by Vermeer Paris patron Pearl perspective picture Pieter Claesz Pieter de Hooch Pieter van Ruijven portrait probably Procuress Rembrandt Reynier Rotterdam seen shadow Slatkes Sold for fl space suggest tapestry tion tronies Utrecht Vermeer's painting View of Delft viewer virginal Wadum wall Washington Wheelock 1995a Willem window York and London Young Woman