Vermeer in Amsterdam and Delft

Excellent online lecture from ARTscapades looking at two Vermeer exhibitions currently on in Amsterdam and Delft.

Richard Stemp led us through both exhibitions with wonderful illustrations. I had wanted to get to the Amsterdam show which sounds fantastic but wasn’t organised enough. However this gave a flavour of what it was like. He explained what was in each room and talked us through the pictures in detail. I love Vermeer so it was a treat to spend time thinking about the works and what they might be saying.

The Delft show looks at what is known about the life of Vermeer with archive material and objects which illustrated the life he may have had. There is actually very little information on him in the archive but Stemp talked us through the objects in the show and some of the conclusions which can be drawn from them about the artist and the city at the time. This did get a bit complicated, partly due to the Dutch names, so I must admit I did have to relisten to the recording of that section but it was well worth it.

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