Transcript Some Stories Behind the Paintings of Jan Vermeer

Stories Behind Selected
Paintings of Jan Vermeer
and his Contemporaries
The Dawn of the Global World in the 17th Century
Dieter Merkl
[email protected]
Electronic Commerce Group
Institut für Softwaretechnik und Interaktive Systeme
Technische Universität Wien
Favoritenstraße 9-11/188-1 . 1040 Wien . Austria/Europe
Fax: +43 (1) 58801 - 18899
http://www.ec.tuwien.ac.at/~dieter/
View on Delft
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Jan Vermeer
~ 1660
96.5 × 117.5 cm, Oil on canvas
Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis,
The Hague, NL
http://www.mauritshuis.nl/
Notes
• tombstone in the Old Church of Delft
• “View on Delft” was painted from the
south, Vermeer must have had access to a
somewhat elevated position
• the tower of the New Church is shining in
the sun
• following to the left we see the tower of
the Old Church
Notes (2)
• in the left foreground we see a passenger
ship with some people waiting to get on
board
• two ships tied together on the right side of
the picture are used for catching herrings
• herrings have moved southwards into the
North Sea because of a period of global
cooling in the 17th century
• the cooling was also responsible for the
plague epidemics in that time
Officer and a Laughing Girl
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Jan Vermeer
~ 1657
50.5 × 46 cm, Oil on canvas
Frick Collection, New York, USA
http://www.frick.org/
Notes
• in the picture we see a soldier talking to a
girl alone in a room
• on the wall we see a map of the
Netherlands
• the map is oriented towards the west with
land colored blue and water colored brown
• for comparison see a map of the
Netherlands from 1658
Notes (2)
• the soldier is wearing an impressive hat
made from beaver felt
• the fur of beaver was treasured for making
stable and water resistant hats
• beaver population, however, was reduced
due to hunting
• so, alternatively, hats were made from
felted sheep wool, not as stable as beaver
though
Notes (3)
• beaver fur came to Europe from North
America (Canada) - in exchange for knives
• contact with native American population
because of the search for a land passage
to China through America
Girl Reading a Letter by an
Open Window
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Jan Vermeer
~ 1657
83 × 64.5 cm, Oil on canvas
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden,
Germany
http://www.skddresden.de/en/museen/alte_meister.html
A Maid Asleep
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Jan Vermeer
~ 1657
87.6 x 76.5 cm, Oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
USA
http://www.metmuseum.org/
Girl Interrupted in Her Music
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Jan Vermeer
~ 1658
78 x 67 cm, Oil on canvas
Herzog Anton-Ulrich Museum,
Braunschweig, Germany
http://www.museum-braunschweig.de/
Woman With a Pearl
Necklace
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Jan Vermeer
~ 1662
55 x 45 cm, Oil on canvas
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin,
Germany
http://www.smb.museum/
Reading Woman
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Pieter Janssens Elinga (1623 - ~1682)
?
75.5 x 63.5 cm, Oil on canvas
Alte Pinakothek, München, Germany
http://www.pinakothek.de/altepinakothek/
The Lute Player
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Hans Hendrick Maertensz (~1610 - 1670)
1661
52 x 39 cm, Oil on panel
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/
Notes
• we see a woman reading a letter by an
open window
• it is a love letter, x-ray showed that
Vermeer originally had a Cupid on the wall,
which he omitted in the final painting
• it is the same room as in “Officer and a
Laughing Girl” and the woman is wearing
the same dress
• note the mirroring effect of the window
Notes (2)
• in the foreground we see a table
• a Turkish carpet is moved aside, the carpet
was too precious to cover the floor
• on the table we see a bowl with fruit
• the bowl is porcelain made in China
• porcelain appears also in other paintings of
Vermeer and his time
• contemporary “Girl Reading …” made with
Lego pieces
Notes (3)
• porcelain from China was valued in Europe
• much finer than European tableware made
of clay
• Chinese salesmen sold pieces that did not
meet the Chinese standard of beauty
• some pieces were even built for the
European market, e.g. bowls for soup the
were considerably larger than the ones for
the Chinese market
The Geographer
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Jan Vermeer
1668
53 x 46.6 cm, Oil on canvas
Städelsches Kunstinstitut,
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
http://www.staedelmuseum.de/
The Astronomer
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Jan Vermeer
1668
50 x 45 cm, Oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre, Paris, France
http://www.louvre.fr/
The Astronomer
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Gerrit Dou (1613 - 1675)
1650
27 x 29 cm, Oil on panel
Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden,
The Netherlands
http://www.lakenhal.nl/
Notes
• we see a person that is completely absorbed by his
work
• on the table we see a map
• the geographer is holding a divider
• he looks up in a moment of reflection
• other maps are on the left in front of the windows
and on the floor
• on a cupboard we see a globe, made by Hendrik
Hondius
Notes (2)
• the person possibly is Antony van
Leeuwenhoek, a draper, surveyor and
scholar on Delft
• he appears also in “The Astronomer” by
Vermeer
• Antony van Leeuwenhoek acted as
executor when Vermeer’s widow Catharina
announces insolvency
Notes (3)
• the knowledge of the world was constantly
increasing during the 17th century
• geographers were integrating the observations of
sailors to produce ever more exact maps
• many ships wrecked because of incomplete
knowledge of the world
• the latitude was quite easy to determine for the
navigator, the longitude was not until the 18th
century
• as an example a page of the Hondius-Atlas
Woman Holding a Balance
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Jan Vermeer
1665
42.5 x 38 cm, Oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.,
USA
http://www.nga.gov/
Woman Weighing Coins
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Pieter de Hooch (~1629 - 1684)
1664
61 x 53 cm, Oil on canvas
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany
http://www.gemaeldegalerie-berlin.de/
A Man Weighing Gold
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Cornelis de Man (1621 - 1706)
1670
82 x 68 cm, Oil on canvas
Private collection
The Moneylender
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Gerrit Dou (1613 - 1675)
1664
29 x 23 cm, Oil on wood
Musée du Louvre, Paris, France
http://www.louvre.fr/
Notes
• we see a woman holding a balance
• the woman is possibly Vermeer’s wife
Catharina
• the painting was also known as “Woman
weighing pearls”
• there are, however, no pearls to be
weighted on the table
• there are, however, coins
• weighing coins was a popular sujet in that
time
Notes (2)
• maybe Vermeer was inspired by “Woman
weighing coins” by de Hooch
• weighing of coins was a common routine in
the 17th century
• because of usage the soft coins lost weight
• essential for economic transactions was the
price of the metal and not the face value
printed on the coins
• silver was the currency in the 17th century
Notes (3)
• silver came from Japan and South America
• the Netherlands were exporting most of
Japan’s silver, Spain and Portugal that of
South America
• the purchasing power of silver was higher
in Asia than in Europe
• so, most of the silver finally ended in China
The End
• Vermeer and his family were never particularly
wealthy, they made their living through selling his
paintings and his art trade
• when France came to the Netherlands in the war of
1672, the art market came to a standstill with
catastrophic consequences for artists like Vermeer
• after he died on 15 December 1675 he was buried
in the Old Church
• his widow Catharina had to announce insolvency a
little later
Source
• The idea for this presentation is based on the book
Timothy Brook, Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and
the Dawn of the Global World, Profile Books, London, 2008.
Deutsche Übersetzung
Timothy Brook, Vermeers Hut: Das 17. Jahrhundert und der
Beginn der globalen Welt, Verlag Klaus Bittermann, Berlin,
2009.
• The images were taken from
Web Gallery of Art: www.wga.hu
Wikipedia: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Vermeer
Essential Vermeer: www.essentialvermeer.com
Flickr: www.flickr.com
Mapsorama: www.mapsorama.com