(17) Introducing the places associated with Vermeer's hometown of Delft! Also the connection with Löwenhoek, famous for its microscope!

Travelogue of the Netherlands] (17) Introducing the town of Delft, a place associated with Vermeer! Also the connection with Löwenhoek, famous for its microscope!

After France and Belgium I finally reached the Netherlands.

I came to the Netherlands not only to catch a plane to Georgia, but also to see my favorite Vermeer.

It was the work "The View of Delft" that got me hooked on Vermeer.

This sense of reality beyond realism and mysterious charm won me over at once.

Vermeer was born in Delft in 1632 and spent most of his life here. In a sense, Delft was his hometown and home base as a painter.

I am about to head to Delft.

Delft is a small town about an hour away by train from Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands.

I was supposed to change trains from Brussels to Rotterdam and come here by train, but there was a strike from Rotterdam onward. All the trains were stopped.

That is why we managed to find a bus to get here. Good grief, this is what I fear about public transportation in Europe.

Delft is famous for its canals. Almost every part of the city center is connected by these canals.

Let us now introduce the places associated with Vermeer one by one.

Vermeer's birthplace, the Flying Fox Pavilion

Vermeer's birthplace. A tavern and inn that was run by his father. This is where Vermeer was born in 1632.

Mechelen Pavilion, the house where Vermeer grew up

The house where Vermeer's family moved from his birthplace. They have lived here since Vermeer was 9 years old. It is now a souvenir shop.

New church where Vermeer was baptized

The new church where Vermeer was baptized. A huge church standing tall on Marktplatz in the center of the town. It is a symbol of Delft, clearly visible from a distance. The church is also depicted in "A View of Delft.

Vermeer's house and studio

The ruins of Vermeer's house and studio are a stone's throw from Marktplatz and the New Church.

It is now part of a church facility, so it is not in the same condition as it was at that time.

Model site for "Views of Delft

The View of Delft was painted around 1660-1661. Of course, the landscape has changed since then, but there are still some traces of it.

Although the weather was not so good on the day I photographed, I was still amazed at Vermeer's painting ability to transform this landscape into such a beautiful picture. I realized once again that painting is not simply a matter of capturing the scenery as it is in front of one's eyes; it is also a matter of the artist's eye and skill.

The camera is the most powerful tool for simply capturing the scenery in front of you in a realistic manner. However, there are things that can be expressed only with a painting. As I looked at the scenery, I felt that the painter's skill must be demonstrated in choosing what to add and what to subtract in order to highlight the beauty of the scene.

Land of the "Shoji" model

Vermeer's "Alley" was painted around 1658. Although the appearance has changed, we can still feel a trace of Vermeer's work.

It was a little difficult to find this place because of the similar buildings walking around this area.

Vermeer Museum

It used to be the base of the painting guild of Delft. Vermeer naturally belonged to this guild and served as its director.

The building is now used as the Vermeer Museum, which is a highly recommended spot.

This is because original size copies of all of Vermeer's works are on display here, and his life and the characteristics of his paintings are also explained in an easy-to-understand manner for beginners.

It was very interesting to see the materials used to make the paints and the tools he used. The photo on the far right shows a booth where visitors can actually experience the sophisticated effects of light in Vermeer's paintings. By actually experiencing the same kind of light as in the paintings, visitors can really feel the effects. It was an exhibition that clearly showed how sensitive to light Vermeer was as a painter.

And the exhibit I was most pleased to see in this museum was this one. This is a camera obscura, a machine that Vermeer is said to have used to study light.

The camera obscura is a machine like a running photographic machine that allows the viewer to see the outside world through a lens. It was a much talked about device among painters and scientists of the time because it projected a different world than the one seen with the naked eye.

For more information about this camera obscuraF. Stedman, "Vermeer's Camera: Solving the Mysteries of Light and Space," recommended to learn what the ancestor of the photographic machine, the camera obscura, was!I can't tell you more about it here, but it was a great pleasure for me to be able to see it in person. Moreover, I was able to actually use it to experience what the camera obscura image looks like.

A lens mounted toward the window. The image is then projected through that lens into the box. The important point of the camera obscura is that we do not look directly through the lens. The image is projected inside the box and we see it. If we put a thin sheet of paper on the image, we could indeed trace on it.

I could realistically imagine that Vermeer painted from these images.

This museum is a very useful and appreciated resource for understanding the greatness of Vermeer. I highly recommend this place.

Old church with Vermeer's grave

The old church is less than 5 minutes away from Marktplatz, the center of town. Vermeer's grave is located here.

The only complication here is that there are two Vermeer tombstones in this church.

On the left is the original stone and on the right is the newly created headstone of Vermeer.

In Christian churches, tombstones are sometimes inscribed on the floor stone, as shown in this photo. In this church, gravestones are placed at the feet of people walking around. Moreover, the gravestones are placed so densely together that one wonders if it is okay to walk on them.

And as I mentioned earlier, there are now two tombstones for Vermeer. We don't even know if Vermeer is buried under that stone in the first place, since he was not deliberately reinterred. We can only say that he is probably buried somewhere in this church.

But even if this were true, the presence of a gravestone is still very significant. When we pray with our hands in front of the stone, we would not know where to turn without some kind of marker to guide our prayers. In that sense, I think it is important to have a gravestone here. This is how I was able to visit Vermeer's grave.

And in this old church, another of Delft's geniuses, Löwenhoek, is also buried.

The tombstone is clearly magnificent, unlike Vermeer's tombstone. It reminds us of how Löwenhoek was treated as a prominent and powerful figure in the city.

Löwenhoek was an official of the town, but he was self-taught and built his own microscope, and after more than 20 years of continuous improvement and observation, he discovered microorganisms in the water.

In the Christian world of the past, everything was created by God, and the order of good and evil was all His. Everything was written in the Bible. Everything was as God willed it. It was a world where people could not even imagine that plague was caused by an invisible fungus.

In such a world, Löwenhoek opened up to people a world invisible to the naked eye.

The scientists who followed in his footsteps made new discoveries.

The cause of the plague, which until now had been thought of only as an evil spirit, a plague, or a divine punishment, was "an invisible but actually existing creature. What happens when such discoveries come one after another? It is not surprising that the people of that time would think as follows.

'What was it the Church has been saying all this time? Wasn't God Almighty right in what He was saying?"

The development of science and the world as taught by Christianity.

This conflict would become an eternal theme after the Renaissance.

In this sense, Löwenhoek's microscope and the discovery of microorganisms must have had a tremendous impact on the Christian world.

And what a surprise, Vermeer and this Löwenhoek were born in the same town in the same year!

The two were born in Delft in 1632.

And they both lived in this town 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 invisible to the naked eye through their "lenses.

No evidence remains of direct interaction between Vermeer and Löwenhoek, but the fact that they each held town positions in the small town of Delft, and were even fairly close neighbors, suggests that the two would have had a connection during their lifetime, by Laura J. Snyder.Vermeer and the Scientific Genius."It was stated in the

There is even a theory that Vermeer's "The Astronomer" and "The Geographer" were modeled after Löwenhoek.

Since we are here, I would like to introduce the house in Löwenhoek next.

House in Leeuwenhoek

Löwenhoek also lived within a few minutes' walk of Marktplatz. From here he went to work every day at his workplace, the City Hall on Marktplatz. The photo below shows the City Hall on Marktplatz.

As the name suggests, Marktplatz was the site of many markets. In other words, it was a very lively place where the residents lived. Both Vermeer and Löwenhoek must have walked around this very square.

What is more surprising is that it takes less than three minutes to walk from Vermeer's house to Löwenhoek's. I actually walked from Löwenhoek's to Vermeer's house, and was amazed at how close it was. I actually walked there myself and was amazed at how close it was. It is very difficult to imagine that they lived in such close proximity and that they were both prominent people in the town, and that they did not know each other.

We live in a time when social ties are much stronger than they are today. It is hard to believe that we can remain total strangers.

I still think that there was a connection between the two.

The following tweets are a video of a walk starting from Vermeer's house to the New Church, Marktplatz, City Hall, Mechelen Pavilion, the ruins of the Painters' Guild (now Vermeer Museum) where Vermeer served as director, the Flying Fox Pavilion, and Löwenhoek's house. We hope you can feel the atmosphere of Delft and the distance between the two houses in this video.

The video is combined with the tweet above.

Vermeer's House
Protestant Church
Marktplatz
town hall
Mechelen Pavilion (of the inner Heian Palace)
Site of the Painters' Guild (now Vermeer Center), where Vermeer served on the board of directors
Flying Fox Pavilion
House in Leeuwenhoek

in that order. pic.twitter.com/ygwNPyhAba

- Takahiro Ueda @Hakodate Kinshokuji Temple (@kinsyokuzi) September 18, 2022

The original microscope made by Löwenhoek is also on display at the Boolhawe Science Museum in Leiden, a town close to Delft.

I also visited this museum to see his microscope.

When I saw the original microscope, I was astonished. I wondered how they had been looking at microorganisms with such a small tool. I didn't even know how to use it at a glance. Moreover, the lens was too small. The fact that he had taught himself to make such a small lens at a level that far exceeded the highest standards of the time was truly frightening. What a genius and what a monster.

The times will change because of the birth of these overwhelming figures.

And the fact that the Netherlands at that time was the soil that gave birth to Löwenhoek, Vermeer, and other researchers of light and their work. I think this is also very significant.

They were active from the mid-17th century. In Japan, this is the century in which the Edo period began. They lived at the same time. I can't talk about the relationship between Japan, the Netherlands, and European countries at that time because it would take too long, but it is a matter of great interest to me. I have introduced various books on this subject on this blog, so I would be happy if you could take a look at them as well.

And as I was walking along the beautiful canals of Delft, I suddenly realized something.

The leaves of the trees along this canal are as detailed as if they were dotted. And if you think about it, the walls of the buildings in this town also have that kind of coloring.

A closer look at "View of Delft" also reveals that Vermeer used many such detailed dotted touches in his painting.

Unfortunately, the weather remained cloudy for the two days we stayed in Delft, but unlike the Mediterranean and other Latin regions, the Netherlands has many cloudy days. That is why we are sensitive to the occasional ray of sunlight. I wondered if Vermeer's sensitivity to light may have been the reason why he paid attention to light.

And back to the canal again...this canal is so perfectly still that you wonder, "Is it really flowing?" The canal is so perfectly still that you may wonder if it is really flowing. The canal is so perfectly still that one wonders if it is really flowing, and the surrounding scenery is reflected in the canal like a mirror. However, the slightest breeze and various changes in the light and the way it looks changes. It is precisely because Vermeer saw these canals every day that he must have developed a sensitivity to light and the way things look.

The stay in Delft made me think about the influence of the environment on painters.

be unbroken

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