I’ve always thought that one of the nicest things about the museum world is that any art museum will loan out almost any of its works, to be in special eXhibitions that travel around to other art museums. I appreciate the one for all, all for one attitude. It’s a way in which the entire world can come to your local museum. I’ve seen paintings from the grand Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg Russia, that I otherwise would have never been able to see, unless they had been part of a travelling exhibit. This exchange of works is one way in which a work of art can show you the entire world.
There’s another way too that’s a little bit harder to see but once you realize what you’re looking at, it can make you see a painting and the world differently. Vermeer’s Hat is the name of a book by an author Timothy Brook that came out a few years ago. If you’re an art fan it’s worth your attention. It takes Vermeer canvases one by one and looks carefully at what’s in them and comes to some interesting conclusions.
The author speaks of “broader historical forces that lurk” in the details of Vermeer’s works and once you adjust your eye to look at art in this way, it opens it up at a whole different level. He reminds us that paintings aren’t like photographs. They’re not “taken” like a photo. They’re made; they’re composed. They’re to show a scenario that the painter wants to show.
When you look at Vermeer’s painting Officer and Laughing Girl you notice that the officer is wearing a beaver hat. If you know hats, you can tell by the way it sits on his head that it’s not made of felt from European beavers. Where did it come from, the author asks. The answer is that you’re looking at a hat made from North American materials. In Young Woman Reading a Letter at an Open Window there’s a big Chinese bowl full of fruit on the table in front of her. The decade of the 1650s is just the moment when Chinese porcelain was taking a place in Dutch life.
Suddenly you realize that the world itself is in the painting.
If you live in central or north Texas, you’re in luck. For another week, there’s an exhibit at the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth that shows you all this and more. It’s called “Dutch Art in a Global Age” and it shows you what globalization looked like in the 1600s. “This exhibition explores how international travel and trade transformed Dutch art and society,” the curators explain. “Observers in the 17th century described the Netherlands as the world’s marketplace.” The exhibit includes lots of maps that show how Amsterdam was truly a global city.
The exhibit is up through February 9 so you still have a chance to go see it. It’s well worth your time.