List of recommended Vermeer commentary books - To enjoy the wonderful world of paintings by Vermeer, the painter of light.

List of recommended Vermeer commentary books - To enjoy the wonderful world of paintings by Vermeer, the painter of light.

In this article, we will provide a comprehensive list of recommended commentaries on Vermeer that we have introduced on our blog so far.

Vermeer was a 17th century Dutch painter famous for "Girl with a Pearl Necklace" and "Woman Pouring Milk.

From July, the exhibition will be held in Sapporo.OsakaThe exhibition will also be held at

　Vermeer's early masterpiece "Woman Reading a Letter at a Window". The restoration of the painting has revealed Cupid in the background, which had been painted over, restoring the painting to its original appearance. This exhibition is the first time that Vermeer's masterpiece has been exhibited outside of its collection at the National Palace Museum in Dresden, and the first time that it has been exhibited in the world. This is the first time in the world that the work has been exhibited outside of the museum's collection, and Hokkaido is the second domestic venue for the exhibition after Tokyo. In addition, approximately 70 masterpieces representing the 17th century Netherlands, which is the pride of the museum, will be exhibited.

Sapporo Museum of Modern Arthome page.

It was the first exhibition of its kind in the world outside of the museum's collection! I had no choice but to visit this exhibition.

This exhibition has made me more and more interested in Vermeer. I have referred to the books I am going to introduce hereafter. I can confidently recommend all of them as very interesting books. I would be more than happy if I could be of any help to you in your appreciation of Vermeer.

Each of the links below introduces each book in more detail, so if you are interested in any of the books, please take a look at them.

So let's get started.

Vermeer's life and works.

In this book, you will hear an easy-to-understand explanation of Vermeer's life and works.

What I particularly appreciated about this book was that it also provided a detailed historical background of 17th century Holland, where Vermeer was active.

Dutch society at this time looked quite different from that of Rome, the center of the art world at the time.

This difference in social conditions led to a unique development in Dutch painting. I found this process very interesting and read the book in one sitting.

Each piece is explained in detail, so you can take your time to look at the pieces you like best.

I highly recommend this book as an introductory book. It was a very exciting book to learn about the historical background of the Netherlands, which is not easy to learn about.

Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age" with Kyoko Nakano

At first glance, I was intrigued and thought, "This book looks interesting.

This is because Kyoko Nakano is the author of many popular works, including the "Scary Picture Series," and she also painted Mendelssohn in this blog.The Secret Loves of Artists: Mendelssohn, Andersen and Their Times.The work is called.

I have already experienced how interesting Kyoko Nakano's books are. This book must be interesting too..!

It was with this in mind that I picked up this book.

And I love the obi on this book.

History and Humanity Rise from the Paintings."

It is an attempt to bring to light the history of the Netherlands at that time and the lives of the people living there through Vermeer's paintings.

That will be this book. This is interesting!

The work is also unique in that it references not only Vermeer's paintings, but also those by other artists.

It is also nice to be able to compare the characteristics of each artist. After all, there are things that can only be seen by comparing them.

And above all, Kyoko Nakano's narration. She is indeed a master of her craft! It is just so interesting! In addition to the explanations of the pictures, the background of the period and the events of the time are told, and it was so interesting that I finished reading it in no time at all. This is a wonderful book. It is also very easy to read.

I highly recommend this work! It is a great introduction to Vermeer. I highly recommend you to pick up a copy.

Vermeer vs. Vermeer: Beauty vs. Vermeer and the Masters of Western Art

As the title suggests, this work will be about viewing Vermeer and masterpieces from different countries side by side to see the charm and characteristics of each.

It is very nice to have a large, magazine-sized book with color spreads of the masterpieces.

It is a rich and exciting work that allows visitors to get to know not only Vermeer, but also other masterpieces from Western Europe.

It is a fun work to just flip through.

The explanations are easy to read and at the perfect level of detail without being too detailed, making it enjoyable even for those with no knowledge of painting.

I highly recommend this work.

Anthony Bailey, The Vermeer Delft View.

This work is a highly recommended biography to learn more about Vermeer's life, as this product does.

As the acclaimed "biography of Vermeer," which was praised as "a close-up look at the painter on his way to canvas," the book provides a detailed account of the events surrounding Vermeer along with the historical background of 17th-century Holland. The book is written in an easy-to-read and interesting manner, making it an ideal biography for those who want to learn more about Vermeer.

No painter can live apart from the historical background. This is what I felt with this book.

This work provides a fairly detailed look at the period in which Vermeer lived. We highly recommend this biography.

Kobayashi, Laiko, Vermeer and His Rivals: The Painting Market and Painters' Strategies.

This work is unique in that it attempts to look at Vermeer from the perspective of the 17th century Dutch art market, where he was active.

A book on paintings usually explains the characteristics and appeal of the paintings, but this book will focus on the characteristics of Vermeer's works from the market of the time. It also considers Vermeer in the context of his contemporaries and rivals.

This was a very exciting book because it allowed me to think about Vermeer paintings from a different perspective than usual.

We tend to think of a "work of art" as something overwhelming that transcends time and place, but that "work of art" was also born under the influence of a certain era. It could not have been created apart from its historical background. Conversely, we can learn more about a work of art by learning about its historical background.

The Netherlands in the 17th century, when Vermeer lived, had a particularly unique historical background. The history of the rise and fall of the Netherlands during this period is very exciting and interesting; the 1600s would have been the beginning of the Edo shogunate in Japan. In such an era, the Netherlands had a huge market and advanced economic activities. This is nothing short of amazing.

As the title of the book suggests, the relationship between Vermeer and his rivals was also very interesting. It was a very enjoyable read, not only because I enjoyed the paintings themselves, but also the historical background and history of the period.

It is still interesting to see it from different perspectives. I think this work, which allows us to look at paintings from the perspective of market economy, is very valuable. I highly recommend this work.

Laura J. Snyder, Vermeer and the Scientific Genius.

This book is the best! I am not exaggerating when I say that it is one of my top 3 best works of the first half of 2022.

It's just so interesting! It's not often you see a book that makes you so excited.

Vermeer is known for his unique painting style in which grains of light can be felt.

The book will look at how Vermeer mastered the technique of capturing this "light" exquisitely, and how revolutionary it was in the world at that time.

We in later generations take these paintings for granted, but this book shows how cutting-edge the world Vermeer was trying to see was.

The author, Laura J. Snyder, tells the story of Vermeer in the context of the historical background and religious situation of the time. It's fascinating! I was like, "What? I see! The book is a great read.

It is easy to see how Vermeer and other Dutch paintings were tied to the historical background of the time. One can only be amazed at how Vermeer started a huge revolution.

I hope everyone will experience the fun of this book. A must read for Vermeer fans. You will love Vermeer even more.

I would also highly recommend it to those who were not so interested in Vermeer. You will be surprised at how amazing Vermeer was.

And even more so, those who are interested in religion and culture. I would highly recommend this program to such people!

This is because the book tells the story of Vermeer and Löwenhoek, who saw the world in a completely different way than the traditional Christian worldview.

It was a society that believed the world was created by an absolute God and could not imagine an invisible world. In such a situation, Löwenhoek discovered microorganisms with a microscope and presented a world that was unknowable to the human eye. Vermeer also explored the mechanism of human vision, in other words, the principle of light.

This is also connected to Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Newton, and others.

It is an amazing work that gives us an insight into that transitional period when the world moved from the Middle Ages to the modern era. As I have said many times before, such an exciting work is not often seen.

I would highly recommend this work.

F. Stedman, Vermeer's Camera: Solving the Mysteries of Light and Space.

As the title suggests, this work is about Vermeer and the optical machine known as the camera obscura.

Although all the books I read about Vermeer's relationship with the camera obscura, I have to admit that it was difficult to understand what the camera obscura actually was and how it was used.

In this context, this "Vermeer's Camera: Solving the Mysteries of Light and Space" provides a fairly detailed look at the camera obscura. There are numerous diagrams and photographs, and it also explains clearly how the artist used this machine. I appreciated this.

This work is highly recommended for those who want to learn more about this optical instrument used by Vermeer.

Jean-Claire Martin, Vermeer and Spinoza: The Formula for Eternity.

The book is an intimate look at the remarkable relationship between the Dutch painter Vermeer and the philosopher Spinoza.

Speaking of Spinoza, you may have heard his name before, but it is not always easy to know what this person described when it comes time to talk about him. I was one of them. I didn't even know what country he was from.

I picked up this book because I was looking for something interesting to read about Vermeer and this book caught my eye.

The mysterious combination of Vermeer and the philosopher Spinoza. What does this mean?

Such questions arose in me and my interest was piqued.

And to my surprise when I read the book, to my surprise, Vermeer and Spinoza were born in the Netherlands in the same year, 1632.

Moreover, the fact that Spinoza, although a philosopher, earned his income from lens polishing was also mentioned. Speaking of lens polishing, Löwenhoek of the Netherlands is famous for his microscopes.

Vermeer and Löwenhoek's connection is above.Laura J. Snyder, "Vermeer and the Scientific Genius," a recommended masterpiece! What an amazing relationship with the famous microscopist, Löwenhoek."Also introduced in

Vermeer used an optical machine called a camera obscura to explore light, while Löwenhoek used a homemade microscope to explore the world invisible to the naked eye.

What they had in common was that they were both working with high-performance lenses, the most advanced technology of the time. Moreover, they were both born in 1632 and lived in the same city, Delft.

In other words, the trio of the same age - Vermeer, Löwenhoek, and Spinoza - are connected through the same tool: the lens.

There is also a theory that Löwenhoek used the lenses that Spinoza polished, and that Spinoza wrote to Vermeer.

I had no idea that a philosopher whose name I had only heard of would be connected here with Vermeer and Löwenhoek! This surprised me too.

The fascinating history of the Netherlands in the seventeenth century has absorbed me. I am convinced that the Netherlands during this period is very important for world history and religion. This is an exciting book.

The Complete Works of Genpei Akasegawa, The Eye of Vermeer.

The author, Genpei Akasegawa, has the unique distinction of being a painter and an Akutagawa Prize-winning author.

The author's review of Vermeer is now titled "[New Edition] All Works Read by Genpei Akasegawa: Vermeer's Eyes".

You will encounter some very cool words in this book. Moreover, I was struck by how dramatically Vermeer's charms are described. The painter's point of view and the power of words that won the Akutagawa Prize...! Wow, it's amazing! I adore it.

The painting that left the greatest impression on me in the book was "The View of Delft. It was this painting that got me hooked on Vermeer, and to my surprise, Mr. Akasegawa also said that this was his first encounter with Vermeer. His story about the work is really wonderful, and I introduce it in this article. I hope you will read this article.

Yuriko Kuchiki, "Vermeer's Journey to the Complete Works of Vermeer

This work is a travelogue by journalist Yuriko Kuchiki, who visited Vermeer's works scattered around the world.

Yuriko Kuchiki is a journalist, not a Vermeer expert. However, the interest of this book lies in the fact that she looks at Vermeer from the perspective of a journalist.

I would like to add that while a close study by an art historian is certainly exciting, as a journalist I have a slightly different perspective."

As the author states, this is exactly how she sees Vermeer from her perspective as "Yuriko Kuchiki, a journalist" and continues her journey.

From what perspective will I look at "it"?

I think this is a very important issue in all things.

When I see Vermeer, too.As a priest and a religious man."We are learning about his work and its history.

I am interested in Vermeer not only because of the beauty of the paintings themselves, but also because of the history, thought, and historical background behind them, especially the Christian context.

When I study Vermeer, I can feel the atmosphere of the transitional period just from the traditional Christian world to the modern world. For me, that is most interesting.

From a religious to a scientific worldview.

These issues of the rise and fall of religion are my perspective on Vermeer.

The book is a travelogue by a journalist, which makes it very easy to read and summarize the local conditions and the key points of the Vermeer paintings. It is also gratifying to hear his candid views because he is not a Vermeer expert.

It is a great travelogue and I would recommend it as an introduction to Vermeer. It was a very interesting book!

Yuriko Kuchiki and Shigeji Maebashi, Vermeer Pilgrimage

I mentioned one above.The Vermeer Journeywas a travelogue-like work in which the author, a journalist, toured Vermeer's works from his own perspective, but this book is organized in the form of a handy guidebook for travelers.

What is most gratifying about this book is that it provides a map of the museum where each Vermeer work is housed, its exterior, and even the atmosphere inside the museum.

And since there are easy-to-understand explanations for each picture, this book will be very useful when traveling.

The book is all in color and contains many photographs, so you can immerse yourself in Vermeer's world just by reading this book.

Reading this makes me want to actually see the original paintings there.

In fact, I'm already ready to go see the show.

When I thought about actually going there, I wondered how to get there, etc. This book was very helpful because I could learn about the local map and the atmosphere of the area.

Masayuki Okabe, Rembrandt and Vermeer

Rembrandt is the 17th century Dutch master known for "The Night Watch" above.

This book will be a work that follows the life and works of these two Dutch masters, Rembrandt and Vermeer, by comparing them.

As the author says in this book, there are surprisingly few works in which Rembrandt and Vermeer are discussed side by side. In that sense, this book is a very valuable work.

The work is also visually enjoyable, as the photographs and paintings are in full color.

As for Vermeer, I had read various of his works, so I knew about his life and characteristics, but surprisingly, I must admit that I had not really reached out to Rembrandt.

In this context, I appreciated this book, which tells the story of Rembrandt's life and works in an easy-to-understand manner while comparing them to Vermeer's.

It was easy to see that this is the kind of person Rembrandt was.

This work, which gives a general overview of two of the leading figures in Dutch painting, will be quite informative for many people. It may be a good introduction to Dutch painting.

The volume of the work is less than 150 pages, making it an easy read. Why not pick up a copy?

Kikuro Miyashita, Vermeer's Light and La Tour's Fire: A History of Western Paintings of "Darkness".

As the title of this work suggests, this work considers how the beautiful paintings of Vermeer, the painter of light, were created, using "darkness" as a starting point.

Another major figure in the book is La Tour (1593-1652), a French painter and master known as the "painter of the night."

Vermeer painted beautiful light shining through a window. La Tour, on the other hand, depicted a candlelight that illuminated the darkness.

The contrast between the two is interesting in itself.

What is even more interesting is that this exploration of "light and darkness" led to Leonardo da Vinci.

The technique of depicting "darkness and light" established by da Vinci.

From there, the Italian painter Caravaggio (1571-1610) appeared further back in time.

Caravaggio completed the dramatic composition by inserting intense rays of light into the darkness.

Caravaggio, as we have discussed in this previous article, was a decisive figure in the history of Western painting.

This in turn led to Vermeer's depiction of light. This book, "Vermeer's Light and La Tour's Fire: A History of 'Darkness' in Western Paintings," is a book that reminds us that the history of painting is also connected. This is an interesting book.

I would highly recommend this work.

Koichi Motoki, "The Laughing Vermeer and the Smiling Mona Lisa: The Mystery of Laughter in the Masterpieces of Vermeer and Mona Lisa.

As the title suggests, the book is an exploration of the hidden meaning of the smile in the history of painting, using the smiles of Vermeer and the Mona Lisa as its subject matter.

The meaning of both sides of a smile in a Christian painting. This is something that is difficult to recognize just by looking at a painting, but once you know it, your view of it will be transformed.

So what is the significance of the smiling faces of Vermeer and the Mona Lisa, the main theme of this book?

I hope you will read this book. It was a very interesting book and I highly recommend it.

Ichiro Fujita, "The 3D World Created by the Brain: The Mystery and Mechanism of Stereoscopic Vision

The book is the work of Ichiro Fujita, a cognitive brain scientist.

Vermeer was the reason I picked up this book.

Vermeer used this camera obscura, the ancestor of the camera, to explore how the human eye sees, and reflected this in his paintings.

The mysterious realism and beauty of light in Vermeer's paintings were the result of this exploration of "the human way of seeing things.

And reading this book, "The 3D World Created by the Brain: The Mystery and Mechanism of Stereoscopic Vision," made me rethink the way we humans see things.

Although the book does not directly discuss Vermeer's paintings, it was a very interesting discovery to consider in conjunction with the Vermeer books I have read.

How do we see the world? This book shows us that the world we take for granted is not at all the norm. This is a stimulating book. I highly recommend it.

G. Schwarz, Vermeer's World: A Tale of Tranquility Traced in Enlarged Plans.

This work, as the title of the book suggests, is an attempt to enlarge Vermeer's work to appreciate the finest of details.

As you can see from the quoted image above, the picture looks different when you see the whole picture and when you zoom in on a part of it.

The overall composition and beauty of Vermeer's paintings are so brilliant that, conversely, it comes out that the eye cannot focus on the details.

I have seen Vermeer's paintings in various books, but this book has led me to more and more unexpected discoveries.

What?" This place was written like this!" I didn't know it was like this!" I was surprised many times.

In this enlarged view, we can also sense where and how Vermeer's signature grains of light are used, and how the texture of the clothing is expressed by the brushstrokes.

This is very difficult to see unless you zoom in just barely. It is quite difficult to see the work just by looking at it with the naked eye.

In this book, you will see a master's technique that you cannot notice if you only look at Vermeer's works vaguely.

Moreover, it is very easy to read because the pages are all in color and full of information.

Even if you go to a museum, it is not possible to look at a painting this closely. And it is even more impossible to observe the paintings closely on site as if you were looking at them through a magnifying glass. This book makes the impossible possible.

If you read it, I am sure you will be surprised. You will be astonished to see how Vermeer painted like this. You will feel once again what a monster Vermeer was. It's too amazing. After reading this book, I wonder how Vermeer's original paintings will look like when I see them. I think it will be so different from how I see it.

This is a highly recommended work. I highly recommend that you pick it up.

Timothy Brook, "Vermeer's Hat"

Although this piece is titled "Vermeer's Hat," it actually says very little about Vermeer. Those who want to know more about Vermeer's life and paintings will surely be surprised when they read this.

This is because this work focuses on the "objects" in Vermeer's paintings and explores how they came to the Netherlands and what the historical background was like.

Author Timothy Brooke is a professor of Chinese history at the University of British Columbia, Canada.

So the main theme of this book is the relationship between the Dutch East India Company and Asian trade, especially with China.

The Netherlands in the 17th century, when Vermeer lived, enjoyed a golden age thanks to the prosperity of the East India Company, which was established in 1602.

It was because of his vast fortune and the global marketplace that Vermeer's paintings were able to be Vermeer's paintings.

And the numerous "things" in Vermeer's paintings came precisely from China and Asia. By focusing on these "things," we can get an overview of the global world of the 17th century.

That is the general flow of the book.

The narrative, unique to a specialist in Chinese history, is quite different from the usual Vermeer book and very stimulating.

The book also talks about Japan. It also talks about Japan's position in the trade between Europe and Asia. I was surprised to learn that Japan was one of the world's largest miners of silver, and that its silver had a huge impact on Asian trade.

If you are interested in learning about Vermeer's paintings themselves, I would not recommend this book, but I think this book is very interesting in its attempt to look at the historical background of the period from a global perspective.

Tadashi Haneda, A World History of Rise and Fall, Volume 15: The East India Company and the Asian Seas.

The book will be a work that attempts to look at the global trade between Asia and Europe based on the relationship between the East India Company and Asia, which arose successively in the early 17th century.

I picked up this book by Timothy Brooke, mentioned above.Vermeer's Hat.was the catalyst.

I came to learn in this book that Vermeer's paintings had strong connections to the prosperity of the Dutch East India Company.

If this is the case, then we can learn more about the background of Vermeer's paintings by learning more about the East India Company. Furthermore, by learning more about the East India Company, I could learn not only about Vermeer, but also about the world situation and Japan at that time. This is how I came to feel.

Then I started reading "The World History of Rise and Fall Volume 15: The East India Company and the Asian Seas". This was another good book! Interesting!

The trade between Japan and the Netherlands will also be explained at length, so this is another must-see. Why was Japan never invaded by force unlike other Asian countries? Despite such blatant threats at the time of Perry, Portugal and the Netherlands did not use such methods. It is strange, isn't it, if you think about it? You can learn about such things in this book.

I highly recommend this book to learn about the beginnings of the global trading system that was to change the world. The text is easy to read and you can read it easily. It is a masterpiece of intellectual excitement. I highly recommend this work.

Conclusion

It was "The View of Delft" that first made me fall in love with Vermeer in the first place.

At the time, I was simply fascinated by the beauty of this painting, but as I read Vermeer's commentary again, I fell in love with him even more.

The more you know about Vermeer, the more interesting he is! I felt this strongly from my recent reading.

Especially Laura J. Snyder's.Vermeer and the Scientific Genius."I was really surprised by the Definitely my best book of the first half of 2022.

It is easy to see how Vermeer and other Dutch paintings were tied to the historical background of the time. One can only be amazed at how Vermeer started a huge revolution.

And speaking of Vermeer, these two works are also famous.

The model for this scholar is said to be a man named Löwenhoek, who was the first in the world to discover microorganisms under a microscope.

Amazingly, Vermeer and this Löwenhoek were born in the same year in the same city!

The two were born in Delft in 1632.

And they both lived in the city for most of their lives, each accomplishing great things.

Löwenhoek with his microscope and Vermeer with his camera obscura, these two artists explored the world unseen by the naked eye through their "lenses".

I cannot discuss the camera obscura at length, but Vermeer was exploring the invisible world of light using the most advanced technology of his time. This is reflected in his paintings.

Although no evidence remains of direct interaction between Vermeer and Löwenhoek, the author states that the two would have had a connection during their lifetime, as each held a position in the small city of Delft and were also fairly close neighbors.

The relationship between the two is also looked at closely in this book.

The book will give you an idea of what great things the two accomplished and what it meant to this world. This was a shock. It is truly a revolution in the way we look at things. You will feel that they are the very reflection of an era of rapid scientific progress. Vermeer went far beyond simply creating beautiful paintings!

Too much fun..! I was left overwhelmed by this book.

To be honest, there are so many parts I would like to introduce that I would like to write a series of articles titled "Reading Vermeer and the Scientific Genius". But due to time limitations, that will not be possible. It is such an interesting book.

I would highly recommend this work.

The books introduced in this article are all interesting. I would like to recommend them to you, so I hope you will take a look at the books that interest you. This is "List of Recommended Commentary Books on Vermeer - To Enjoy the Wonderful World of Paintings by Vermeer, the Painter of Light".

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