In these paintings, Vermeer speaks to the soul through religious themes and motifs. We have three paintings together that speak not to an outer world, but rather to an inner one. He painted Allegory of the Catholic Faith, Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, and Woman Holding a Balance, which pick up on Catholic themes. GW: In the catalog and the arrangement of the exhibition, Catholicism plays a minor role. How did that inform the way you approached the exhibition? Courtesy the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.ĪN: Your research considered the role of Vermeer’s conversion to Catholicism. Johannes Vermeer: Woman Holding a Balance, ca. He also captures male and female courtship through music making as an invitation to the beholder. Such elements and details as open windows and letters really drive this concept. He paints the inside of Dutch houses, for example, but opens these interiors with a woman’s gaze looking beyond the frame and windows left open to the outside world. We decided to arrange the show based on themes that Vermeer had considered throughout his career, in particular this interplay between the inner and outer world. We had to consider the arrangement, how to best display them, and how visitors would approach them. GW: We were glad to have a selection of 28 Vermeer paintings for the exhibition. The show includes three paintings from the Frick, four from the Rijksmuseum, three from Mauritshaus, and others from museum partners in Washington D.C., London, Berlin, Dresden, and Frankfurt.ĪN: It’s great that you could arrange this kind of global collaboration. There was also a nice opportunity to showcase the Vermeer paintings on loan from the Frick Collection while it’s undergoing a rebuilding process. Since the last showing, there have been advancements in our understanding of the artist and his work. The Rijksmuseum has never dedicated an exhibition to Vermeer until now. After nearly 30 years, it is necessary to show the work of Vermeer and others like de Hooch and Rembrandt as artists of the Netherlands. We are now a generation farther away from that. and the Mauritshuis in the Hague in 1995–96. Gregor Weber: The last big monographic exhibition about Vermeer was at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. (Last year, the museum released details on the underpainting of The Milkmaid, which included previously unknown details of the piece.) Research will continue after the exhibition’s close and will be presented at a symposium in 2025, in conjunction with the 350th anniversary of Vermeer’s death.Īhead of the new exhibition, which will be on view through June 4, ARTnews spoke with Gregor Weber, the head of the department of fine arts at the Rijksmuseum and co-curator of the show.ĪRTnews: This exhibition is the largest showing of Vermeer’s work thus far. (The same technologies were used on Rembrandt’s painting The Night Watch.) Changes made by Vermeer (and others) to his work have shed light on the artist’s approach and overall practice, as well as the lives of the works themselves. The show comes on the heels of new technical research conducted on the paintings, with Mauritshuis in the Hague and the University of Antwerp, using advanced Macro-XRF and RIS scanning technologies. This technology picked up on techniques that Vermeer had incorporated into his paintings, including his use of light and illusionism. Though Vermeer was moderately successful during his lifetime, receiving recognition in Delft and the Hague in the Netherlands, his works experienced a revival in the 19th century with the rise of the camera. The new exhibition follows themes that Vermeer took up during his life such as domestic interiors, religion, musical seduction, and daily life. He had 11 children who survived beyond childhood. He was raised a Calvinist reformed Protestant, but converted to Catholicism upon his marriage. The son of an art dealer, Vermeer lived and worked in Delft as a painter, an art dealer, and the head of the St. Man Painted Out of Famed Vermeer Painting Receives New Focus from Conservators
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