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Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World cover

Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World

Timothy Brook

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Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World

Each of Vermeer's paintings tells a story. In one, a military officer leans toward a laughing girl; in another, a woman stands by a window and weighs silver; in a third, fruit spills from a porcelain bowl onto a lavish Turkish carpet. Hiding in plain sight, these details hint at the intricate threads that bound Vermeer's world together - the officer's hat is made from North American beaver, bought with silver extracted from the mines of Peru, while beaver pelts were traded in their thousands for the Chinese porcelain so beloved by the Dutch in the Golden Age. From a view of Delft, Vermeer gives us the world. Vermeer's Hat offers a fascinating perspective on how the burgeoning forces of trade and commerce shaped Vermeer's masterpieces.

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Publisher
Profile Books
Year
2010
ISBN-13
9781847652546
Genre
History
Topics
Global trade in the 17th centuryDutch Golden AgeVermeer's paintings and material culture

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