It's the most sought-after ticket for years. The largest Exhibition of works by the 17th century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer ever assembled are on display at Amterdam's Rijksmuseum. It opened in early February and runs until June 4th. But forget about trying to get tickets. They all sold out in just three days. After his relatively short life of 43 years, only 34 works by Vermeer have survived, of which 28 form the Exhibition. These include arguably his most famous The Girl with a Pearl Earring. Vermeer worked slowly, hence his small output, but this meant he left his wife and child in poverty and in debt. For 200 years he was all but forgotten. Then in the 19th century he was rediscovered and deemed to be one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age of Painting.

For those who would like to know more about all the works on display, this audio/video guide with Stephen Fry introducing each of the paintings is a splendid introduction. Just copy the link and click on the box "With Stephen Fry"

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/johannes-vermeer?utm_source=nieuwsbrief&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=online_vermeer_experience&utm_content=algemeen_en

 

 

What a fascinating documentary! Thank you so much for posting. I am sending it to my friends who will be visiting the Amsterdam Exhibition next month.

When I saw that it was a Penn & Teller film, I assumed it would be something quite flippant. Nothing could have been further from reality. It's a very serious study of how Vermeer might actually have been able to reproduce so exactly the images he painted. If so, then he would not have been the first to use that marriage of art and simple technology.

150 years before Vermeer, the early Renaissance Tuscan painter Piero della Francesca was known also as a mathematician and master of geometry. This is clearly seen in the few of his paintings still available in Museums and Galleries. One year in Italy I drove over to Urbino just to see what is arguably his finest extant work, The Flagellation of Christ, frequently called the finest small painting in the world. The geometry is extraordinary and has been the subject of many videos. This short one is interesting partly because it starts by explaining the background to the possible composition and the characters, but more particularly because it details some of the painting's geometry. If you are interested only in the latter, start at 5'05" - and be amazed!