Vermeer’s Hat, (1st 7 weeks), GAYLEY
F 2024

We shall study cultural history of the 17th century illustrated by remarkable paintings of Vermeer. The text provides new ways of thinking about the origins of commonplace objects. Course length - 7 weeks.

In one painting, a military officer in a Dutch sitting room flirts with a laughing girl. In another, a woman at a window weighs pieces of silver. Vermeer’s images haunt us with the beauty and mystery - what stories lie behind this stunningly rendered moments? These pictures, which seems so intimate, actually offer a remarkable view of a rapidly expanding world. The dashing officer’s hat is of beaver fur from Canada, while the pieces of silver, mined in Peru, might be used to purchase the Chinese porcelain seen in other Vermeer paintings. Moving outward from Vermeer’s studio, we trace the web of trade that was spreading across the globe in the 17th century. Vermeer’s Hat shows just how rich is the vision and how the urge to acquire such things was refashioning the world more powerfully than we have yet understood.

                                                                                 

1.    The view from Delft
2.    Vermeer’s Hat
3.    A dish of fruit
4.    Geography lessons
5.    School for smoking
6.    Weighing silver
7.    Journeys & Endings

Timothy Brook, Vermeer’s Hat, Bloomsbury Press, 2008, 272 pages
(Including 23 pages of Recommended reading and sources).