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When you stand
in front of a Vermeer,

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it's like there's intense moments
of happiness,

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and time stands still.

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He's such an incredible storyteller.

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He's like a film director,
long before film was invented.

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The exhibition tries
to get closer to Vermeer.

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This means that you will be closer
also to his thoughts, to his ideas.

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And it's as if he has taken
the most mundane thing

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and transformed it,

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transfigured it into something
which feels completely magical.

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MAN 1: Vermeer makes us realise
what it is to be human.

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And the intimacy is so direct
that it gives you goose pimples.

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An exhibition of Vermeer's paintings
on this scale is unprecedented.

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MAN 1: 'In the over 200 years
of the Rijksmuseum,

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'this is the first time
that we organise

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'a retrospective of Vermeer.'

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There's relatively little known
about Vermeer,

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about the circumstances
in which he lived.

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There's no letters,

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there's no diaries,
there's no documents.

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So, to get closer to the artist,

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you have to see his paintings.

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We know 37 paintings by Vermeer,

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of which three, in the past,
have been disputed.

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But still, then,
that's a small oeuvre, 37.

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And through sources,

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we know that he's probably painted
about 40 to 45 paintings.

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So, that's extremely few paintings.

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And the amazing thing is
that the quality is incredibly high.

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So the question remains,
how did he do it?

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MAN 2: Looking at Vermeer,

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you see that every single step
he takes is on purpose.

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And sometimes
we are part of the story,

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so he tries to involve us.

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And, in other paintings,
we see that we are somewhere

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as a distant witness,

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just peeking into a particular room

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without being noticed
by the protagonist in the painting.

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And Vermeer is an artist
who really...

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Well, he uses light,
he uses perspective, depth,

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precise details at one-hand side,
more blurry in the other parts.

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Colour, I mean, if there is one
painter where light is colour

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and colour is light, it's Vermeer,
and no-one else is doing that.

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NARRATOR: Journey back in time
to 1658.

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This plain group of worn facades

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tells the story of a little street
in Delft.

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Cracks in the masonry, peeling paint
and white-washed walls

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anchor a series of red brick houses
positioned under a moody sky.

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Painted with exquisite detail,

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all seems very ordinary and calm
in the little street.

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Daily life articulated
by a moment in time.

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A large house dominates the scene,

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as our eye runs along the street
left to right,

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like a musical score.

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A black door is closed,

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but our eye is drawn next door,

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deep into an open alley
where a woman is doing her chores.

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Water trickles back towards us
via a gutter,

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a perfect perspective.

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Children are absorbed,
heads down in playful activity,

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while another woman sits quietly
in the doorway sewing.

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The painting is beautifully rendered
with an explosion of white dots.

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Brickwork, foliage, rooftops

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and that generous expanse
of cloudy sky.

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Everything is worthy
of our attention.

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The people living there
seem to ignore us

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or are minding their own business.

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Some shutters are closed,

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and windows are dark
with nothing to see inside...

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for now.

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The little street is quiet,
with a little glimpse of life.

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WOMAN: He says, "You don't need
to look at me. Wander by.

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"This is just a little scene.
Nothing to notice here."

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And yet you pause and notice,
and you will enter his world

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with a subtlety and an intricacy
and a delicacy

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that I find actually unique
in the art world.

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It's such a quiet relationship,

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and because it is so intricate
and so intimate,

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it's a relationship
that enters your mind.

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It's a sort of...

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It's almost less a scene
than a mood,

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a mood that sediments down
through your mind,

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through your emotions,
through your memories, perhaps.

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And that's why he ranks so highly
up the list of artists for me.

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WOMAN: Prior to the exhibition,
we did a lot of technical research,

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so we wanted to know
how Vermeer painted these paintings.

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And indeed, there's no drawings
we know of by Vermeer,

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so he must develop
his composition somewhere.

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And we see all these traces
in the paintings

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that he really did that
on the canvas while painting,

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thinking, "Yeah, but this
doesn't work, I'll change it."

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So, we know, for example,

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this woman that is now sitting
in the doorway of the house,

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she was first mirrored and put
in the doorway next to the house.

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There's other changes, like
these two children on the pavement.

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They were added at a really late
stage in the painting process.

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So, the pavement was already there,
and then he thought,

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"Maybe it's a bit empty
or whatever."

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Then he put these children in.

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And then there's this red shutter
on the right side of the painting,

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which just rounds up
the whole composition.

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And that's actually
a very late addition by Vermeer,

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obviously, but a late addition
to the painting.

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So, there was no red shutter first,

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and another little shutter was
half open, which is now closed.

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So, he did all these changes,

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and he must have looked at
the painting and the composition

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and think, "I'm not quite there
yet," or something like that,

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and going on changing it
until he's satisfied.

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PIETER: When we're talking
about the Netherlands,

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it's a very urban country
in the 17th century.

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And one of these cities or towns
in the Netherlands was Delft.

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It was not big.
It was not really small.

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I think 25,000 inhabitants

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in the time when Vermeer was raised
as a young boy

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in the 1630s and 1640s.

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Thinking about Vermeer
as a young boy,

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the city as a scenery
was part of his education

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and part of the way he was raised.

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It was his father
who became an art dealer

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who must have introduced him
into paintings from...

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well, from abroad,
who came from Italy or France

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or from other artists
in the Netherlands as well.

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So, as a young kid,

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visual culture
was already part of his training

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far before the moment
that he got a proper education.

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And what we see happening
at a certain moment,

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he must have been ten or 12
or something like that,

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he must have found a school nearby

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where he was trained
in writing and reading,

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in maths, for example,
but also in drawing.

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And there was a drawing school
really nearby,

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just a few doors away
from the house where he was born

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at Voldersgracht
in the centre of Delft.

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PIETER: When I look at
the View Of Delft,

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I always have the feeling
that I arrive after a long journey,

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and then, all of a sudden,
you're there in front of the city.

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It's there,
but there's water in between us

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and the city in itself.

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So you can't cross it immediately.

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And then you start looking,

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and then the whole profile
of the town presents itself to us

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as a, well, pretty rich city.

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I mean, you see the church,
the new church,

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which is the bell tower
in the background, for example.

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We see the herring fleet,

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so the boats at the water
in the front.

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The gates, I mean, those will be
the gates that will open to us

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once we have crossed the water
as well.

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So, there are single steps in the
way we will proceed in a minute,

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but now we're here
and we have to wait.

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And, right, that moment of waiting
is crucial, I think,

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to this painting as a cityscape

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or a townscape
in the 17th century in itself.

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RACHEL: He takes a port

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which normally would have been
bustling and busy.

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Delft would've been receiving goods
and ships and people

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from all over the world,

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and it would've been
a thriving place.

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Vermeer chooses to paint it at
some unearthly hour of the morning

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when only a few early birds are up,

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and they're standing gossiping
on the quayside.

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And you can all but hear
just the nothing

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but the lap of the water
against the stones.

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And yet in this very,
very quiet world that he captures...

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..where nothing really moves
except one thing,

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which is a thundercloud
passing overhead,

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the sky is something
like two-thirds of the painting.

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And there's this dark cloud passing,

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and it casts the whole
of the foreground of this picture

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pretty much into shadow.

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And yet, beyond it, as it passes,
you see the glint of light

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glowing down a canal
where this cloud has passed.

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Vermeer draws your eye
gently down there,

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and he draws you into that drama.

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You know you will step
into that city as you look.

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And that's exactly
how this exhibition works.

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You are drawn very quietly
into the world

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of this sublime
golden age Dutch master.

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PIETER: What he's doing
in the View Of Delft,

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you really see the reflection
of the buildings in the water

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and the very long shadows,
for example.

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It's early in the tradition,
or the new tradition,

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of townscapes in the Netherlands,

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but he seems to combine
townscape painting

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with landscape painting.

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It's all there.

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He really guides our eye
into his composition.

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So, there he's very much aware
of who the beholder is.

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That's Vermeer as
the cinematographer to the max.

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Light, dark, light, dark.

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That kind of interplay between light
and dark throughout the composition

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makes clear to me
or makes clear to us

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how unbelievably good he was
as an observer, as well, of reality.

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I believe light is crucial to
Dutch artists in the 17th century.

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All different kinds of lakes,
waterways, canals.

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So those were kind of mirrors
laying in the fields

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who were just reflecting light
all the time.

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TACO: We don't know how long
Vermeer took to paint a painting,

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but we can reconstruct it,
in a certain sense.

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What we discovered in the research
for this exhibition

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is that he started with a relatively
broad brushstroke and a sketch,

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and then he starts to build it up

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with very fine, nearly sometimes
pointillist little dots of paint

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that show the reflection of light.

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And he must have spent hours
observing the reflection of light

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and trying to get really closer
to the truth of this reflection.

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So not kind of thinking about
what the theories about it are

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or what other artists do,

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but really observing it
and then putting that into paint.

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And he creates such an illusion
through this

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that you can never see paint.

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When you look at a Vermeer painting,
it never becomes paint.

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The illusion stays.

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MAN: Vermeer lived in Delft,

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and we know that in his time
in the middle of the 17th century,

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23,000 persons lived.

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And of these 23,000, 5,000
were Catholic, so just a quarter.

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So it was possible to be Catholic,
but the Catholics were not allowed

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to be in the administration
of the city.

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As a Calvinistic-born artist
and young man,

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he married a Catholic woman

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because his wife, Catharina Bolnes,
had been Catholic.

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And not only she was very close
to the Catholics,

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but her mother-in-law,
and they lived together,

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Maria Thins, she was even more
related to the Jesuits.

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So, there was one Jesuit
in her family, and they lived there.

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So, it was really a very,
very close neighbourhood.

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PIETER: I think
walking through the exhibition

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really enables us
to walk through his artistry.

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It's not just seeing his oeuvre,

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but it's understanding
what he's doing

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and how he's moving
from one particular invention

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or experiment into another.

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It really enables us
to get a thorough understanding

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what Vermeer is as a concept.

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He is an artist who is able
to come up with new inventions

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which other artists would have
never thought about even,

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00:19:54,760 --> 00:19:56,040
but he's doing it.

242
00:21:12,320 --> 00:21:14,840
GREGOR:
The first room shows early works,

243
00:21:14,840 --> 00:21:17,320
where he starts as a very young man

244
00:21:17,320 --> 00:21:21,160
of, I would say, what is it?
22 years.

245
00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:24,360
So, Christ In The House
Of Mary And Martha,

246
00:21:24,360 --> 00:21:27,520
this is like an altarpiece,
a Catholic altarpiece.

247
00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:32,480
So I think he tried to be an artist
of the Grand Manner.

248
00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:36,320
And this painting has
a lot of features of Flemish art.

249
00:21:36,320 --> 00:21:38,240
In other paintings
of this early period,

250
00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:40,280
he is copying an Italian painting.

251
00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:42,560
He painted his Saint Praxedis.

252
00:21:42,560 --> 00:21:47,480
Another painting is after
a Venetian taste, the Diana.

253
00:21:47,480 --> 00:21:50,040
And again, another painting,
The Procuress,

254
00:21:50,040 --> 00:21:52,480
it's in the style
of the Utrecht Caravaggisti.

255
00:21:52,480 --> 00:21:54,520
So we see different influences,

256
00:21:54,520 --> 00:21:57,640
a very young artist
with a lot of ambitions

257
00:21:57,640 --> 00:22:01,360
and using the biggest canvases
he could buy.

258
00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:13,400
ROBERT LINDSAY:
Preaching to the people,

259
00:22:13,400 --> 00:22:16,320
Jesus Christ arrived in Bethany,

260
00:22:16,320 --> 00:22:19,560
a town situated
not far from Jerusalem

261
00:22:19,560 --> 00:22:21,720
beyond the Mount of Olives,

262
00:22:21,720 --> 00:22:26,040
where a woman named Martha
welcomed him into her home.

263
00:22:27,320 --> 00:22:30,680
Martha had a sister named Mary,

264
00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:34,800
who sat at the Lord's feet
and listened to what he was saying.

265
00:22:34,800 --> 00:22:39,720
But Martha was distracted
by her many tasks,

266
00:22:39,720 --> 00:22:41,760
so she came to him and asked,

267
00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:45,320
"Lord, do you not care
that my sister has left me

268
00:22:45,320 --> 00:22:48,160
"to do all the work by myself?

269
00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:50,320
"Tell her then to help me."

270
00:22:50,320 --> 00:22:52,840
But the Lord answered her,

271
00:22:52,840 --> 00:22:55,960
"Martha, Martha,

272
00:22:55,960 --> 00:23:00,080
"you are worried and distracted
by many things,

273
00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:02,520
"but there is need
of only one thing.

274
00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:04,840
"Mary has chosen the better part,

275
00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:07,480
"which will not be taken away
from her."

276
00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:12,920
Using a triangular composition,

277
00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:17,320
this painting tells the story
of opposing thought.

278
00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:22,200
Martha sees a path to salvation
through toil and hard work,

279
00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:28,320
while Mary seeks salvation
by embracing the message of God

280
00:23:28,320 --> 00:23:32,800
and eternal life
through the teachings of Christ.

281
00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:37,160
GREGOR: We can already see
in these paintings

282
00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:38,880
what is interesting for him.

283
00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:43,920
Women, colour, light,
all these things you can see there.

284
00:23:43,920 --> 00:23:47,840
But he was not able in that time
or was not interested in that time

285
00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:50,200
in perspective, in interiors.

286
00:23:50,200 --> 00:23:52,840
Now, young artists, of course,

287
00:23:52,840 --> 00:23:58,320
would love to make immediately
the most important paintings.

288
00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:01,280
And on top is a human being
from history.

289
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:05,680
Next to the religious subjects,

290
00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:08,960
history painters
also used to paint mythology,

291
00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:11,920
and Vermeer painted two
of these mythological paintings.

292
00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:16,160
We know of another one,
which is lost in the 18th century.

293
00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:18,680
But Diana is one of these.

294
00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:23,000
It depicts a situation
from the Metamorphoses of Ovidius,

295
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:26,800
where Diana,
the goddess of the moon,

296
00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:29,640
and at the same time,
the goddess of the hunt,

297
00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:32,320
and at the same time,
the goddess of chastity,

298
00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:35,840
is resting together
with her other nymphs.

299
00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:39,320
One of the nymphs
is washing the feet of Diana.

300
00:24:39,320 --> 00:24:43,840
She is sitting in the centre with
this little half-moon on her head

301
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:45,440
so that we know this is Diana.

302
00:24:48,200 --> 00:24:50,160
Vermeer is also
the master of colour,

303
00:24:50,160 --> 00:24:52,080
and also, in that very early work,

304
00:24:52,080 --> 00:24:56,320
we see that the colours used
are very, very sophisticated.

305
00:24:56,320 --> 00:25:01,080
Diana is the goddess of the moon,
and the moonlight is a pale yellow.

306
00:25:02,240 --> 00:25:05,040
The sun is going,
and the night is coming.

307
00:25:05,040 --> 00:25:07,320
So I think he thought about that.

308
00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:12,240
And for me, this colour scheme
is coming from Venetian artists.

309
00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:14,840
We don't know that Vermeer
ever travelled to Italy.

310
00:25:20,320 --> 00:25:24,320
The Saint Praxedis
is also a religious painting

311
00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:27,000
of a very old saint
from the Roman times.

312
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:30,000
And the Jesuits had
a special relationship

313
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:32,040
to this saint.

314
00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:36,320
So there is something
where he came into the new society,

315
00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:39,320
and he answered
with these early paintings

316
00:25:39,320 --> 00:25:42,160
the demands of these forms of art.

317
00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:47,320
RACHEL: But even then,
you see the strangeness of Vermeer.

318
00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:50,320
I mean, what biblical scene
is he choosing to do?

319
00:25:50,320 --> 00:25:53,320
He's choosing to do Saint Praxedis.

320
00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:56,320
I mean, who the hell is she?
SHE CHUCKLES

321
00:25:56,320 --> 00:25:59,440
I don't think there's another
Flemish picture that exists of her.

322
00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:03,120
She does exist
in some Italian paintings,

323
00:26:03,120 --> 00:26:04,440
and she was a saint,

324
00:26:04,440 --> 00:26:07,560
actually entrusted with tending
the bodies of martyrs.

325
00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:09,400
And so Vermeer paints
her rather gorily

326
00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:12,040
wringing out
a sort of bloody sponge.

327
00:26:12,040 --> 00:26:13,840
But, you know, what a strange choice

328
00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:16,840
when you have so much...
such a wide... you know,

329
00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:20,640
you have a true smorgasbord
of martyrs and saints to pick from.

330
00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:22,800
What a peculiar choice he made.

331
00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:45,720
PIETER: It's 1656,
and Vermeer's 24 years old,

332
00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:48,720
and he has done,
as far as we know today,

333
00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:51,680
just a few history paintings,

334
00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:54,600
biblical scenes,
mythological scenes.

335
00:26:54,600 --> 00:26:59,080
And then he's opening up a new door,
which leads to The Procuress.

336
00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:03,320
So, it's an elderly lady
standing in the background

337
00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:05,440
with a younger girl in the front,

338
00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:09,320
and then two figures around them,
male figures.

339
00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:13,720
And one of them is giving a coin
to the girl,

340
00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:16,160
which makes clear
that we are talking about

341
00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:19,560
a particular kind of love
in this situation.

342
00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:27,600
RACHEL: I do think that Vermeer
himself was very aware and conscious

343
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:31,600
of the intricacy and importance
of his symbolism,

344
00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:35,600
because another of the wonderful
things about this show

345
00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:38,320
is there's been a lot
of new research and conservation

346
00:27:38,320 --> 00:27:40,440
and study of the paintings,

347
00:27:40,440 --> 00:27:44,240
and a lot of changes that he made
have been revealed.

348
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:48,320
And he made changes
that were very, very significant.

349
00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:52,520
In The Procuress there were...
the coin, the gold coin.

350
00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:54,640
Originally,
there were more gold coins.

351
00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:57,400
He took gold coins away
to make just one,

352
00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:02,320
one spot of gold,
this tiny, glinting focal point.

353
00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:06,440
Lives, reputations, loves, emotions,

354
00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:09,480
all turned, gained and lost

355
00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:12,920
on one tiny golden pinpoint.

356
00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:16,720
A beautiful point to make.
So tiny, so sharp.

357
00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:23,880
PIETER: It's quite a big painting.

358
00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:28,160
So the format still relates
to the big history paintings

359
00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:29,960
he has made before,

360
00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:36,360
but he's exploiting almost a fully
new kind of storytelling here.

361
00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:42,920
I think the Dutch had quite a blunt
kind of humour in the 17th century.

362
00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:44,880
And the moral message is in it.

363
00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:47,920
And this is, I believe,
a very important aspect

364
00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:50,320
of what Dutch art
of the 17th century is about.

365
00:28:50,320 --> 00:28:53,080
It's always with the finger.
It's always pointing at you.

366
00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:56,120
You should behave like this
or not like that.

367
00:28:57,160 --> 00:29:01,240
This kind of dual idea
of moral humour

368
00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:06,080
in a very ambitious painting,
must have opened the door for him

369
00:29:06,080 --> 00:29:09,680
in the way of thinking
to a new kind of painting as well.

370
00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:18,720
But it's also the time period
in which Jan Steen settled in Delft

371
00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:24,000
and had his brewery here
in the centre of the town.

372
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:26,560
And if there's one artist
in the 17th century

373
00:29:26,560 --> 00:29:30,560
who's using his own likeness
in all different kinds of roles,

374
00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:32,760
for example, always looking at us,

375
00:29:32,760 --> 00:29:36,320
a little bit laughing,
involving us into...

376
00:29:36,320 --> 00:29:39,400
well, sometimes,
even the nasty aspects

377
00:29:39,400 --> 00:29:41,200
of what the story is all about.

378
00:29:41,200 --> 00:29:43,520
There is a kind of glimpse or echo

379
00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:47,320
of that visible in the figure
in the left-hand corner,

380
00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:52,120
which could have been
or might have been Vermeer himself,

381
00:29:52,120 --> 00:29:56,000
although we are not completely
secure about this.

382
00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:59,760
But what we do see is that
he's looking straight into our eyes

383
00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:01,480
and tries to grab us

384
00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:06,920
and make clear that we do not spread
our attention to something else.

385
00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:09,720
This is where we should focus on
as a beholder.

386
00:30:09,720 --> 00:30:11,120
And that's very well done.

387
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:08,440
TACO: And then suddenly,
he discovers the interior,

388
00:31:08,440 --> 00:31:09,760
you could say,

389
00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:15,080
with a woman reading a letter
in front of an open window,

390
00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:17,760
which still has
the sizes of painting

391
00:31:17,760 --> 00:31:20,880
of those earlier
religious paintings,

392
00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:24,120
but the subject
is completely different.

393
00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:25,800
He's still very young.

394
00:31:25,800 --> 00:31:29,440
He tries a new genre,
a genre that's been painted before,

395
00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:34,120
of what we call genre painting,
of everyday scenes in an interior.

396
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:37,000
But he does something very special,

397
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:43,400
which is he introduces us
as the viewer into the room,

398
00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:46,320
which is still kind of
with a curtain hanging there.

399
00:31:46,320 --> 00:31:48,560
So we still don't know
if it's actually in the room

400
00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:51,320
that we're standing in,
or we are outside of it,

401
00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:53,320
but we're drawn into it.

402
00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:57,720
And there's a woman,
unaware of us as the spectator,

403
00:31:57,720 --> 00:32:01,320
intently reading a letter
by an open window.

404
00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:07,040
Relatively few paintings show
Vermeer and the subjects of Vermeer

405
00:32:07,040 --> 00:32:11,320
interacting with him as the artist
or with us as the public.

406
00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:13,240
We're like a voyeur.

407
00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:15,400
They don't know that we're there.

408
00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:17,960
And he creates this tension

409
00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:21,000
between the viewer
and the person reading,

410
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:23,320
which makes it very lively.

411
00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:27,280
Although it's very calm, you feel
that any moment she can look up

412
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:29,120
while we disturb her.

413
00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:32,720
And for us as a viewer,
they're never imaginary,

414
00:32:32,720 --> 00:32:34,160
they're real.

415
00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:36,520
You really cannot see paint.

416
00:32:36,520 --> 00:32:37,680
You see a room,

417
00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:41,120
and it seems as if
you're standing there in that room,

418
00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:44,200
looking at the person,
who's unaware of you looking.

419
00:33:23,920 --> 00:33:26,480
WOMAN: So, we're looking
into a 17th century kitchen,

420
00:33:26,480 --> 00:33:31,680
and we see the milkmaid
pouring milk into a bowl.

421
00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:34,600
And in front of that bowl,
there's a lot of bread

422
00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:36,880
and also another bowl.

423
00:33:36,880 --> 00:33:39,320
And she's making a bread pudding.

424
00:33:39,320 --> 00:33:42,360
And for the rest,
it's a very empty room.

425
00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:47,440
You see this very quiet
and calm painting,

426
00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:50,880
but in the beginning,
it had really rough brushstrokes,

427
00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:52,760
and he was setting up
the composition

428
00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:54,480
with not a fine brush

429
00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:57,200
but with really
expressive brushstrokes.

430
00:33:57,200 --> 00:33:59,600
So that was surprising to us.

431
00:33:59,600 --> 00:34:03,400
And then the other thing is that
you look at this quiet painting now,

432
00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:06,320
but in the beginning,
Vermeer had started it

433
00:34:06,320 --> 00:34:10,160
with a big basket
next to the milkmaid

434
00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:12,520
and a jug rack behind her head.

435
00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:15,920
So there were many things
that also caught your attention,

436
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:17,560
while now it's only her.

437
00:34:21,320 --> 00:34:22,440
With certain techniques,

438
00:34:22,440 --> 00:34:25,720
we can definitely visualise
these underlying layers,

439
00:34:25,720 --> 00:34:30,400
which includes all sketch lines
and changes to the composition,

440
00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:31,920
which Vermeer did many.

441
00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:34,720
Almost all of his paintings
have these changes

442
00:34:34,720 --> 00:34:37,320
so that you can really follow him

443
00:34:37,320 --> 00:34:40,080
and his ideas
of the perfect composition.

444
00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:44,360
So for this one, it wasn't
with all things in the back now.

445
00:34:44,360 --> 00:34:49,120
He sort of reduced it, really,
onto the milkmaid and her activity.

446
00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:54,440
For The Milkmaid, it's very
interesting that we see that

447
00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:56,760
he was so busy with light and shadow

448
00:34:56,760 --> 00:34:59,920
and the way the light comes
into his compositions

449
00:34:59,920 --> 00:35:02,120
that, in the tablecloth,
for example,

450
00:35:02,120 --> 00:35:05,760
you have, like, a white underpaint
next to a black underpaint,

451
00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:09,320
which you also don't see any more
because he keeps on working on it.

452
00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:13,440
But he was so busy with
defining space and defining light

453
00:35:13,440 --> 00:35:15,600
already in the underlying layers.

454
00:35:15,600 --> 00:35:19,240
And then he keeps on working
so that we have no idea it's there,

455
00:35:19,240 --> 00:35:23,720
but it still has a big influence
on us while looking at it.

456
00:35:23,720 --> 00:35:26,000
If you look, for example,
on the bread

457
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:29,160
that has all these little dots,
actually many, many colours.

458
00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:32,320
Sometimes, they're yellow and dark.

459
00:35:32,320 --> 00:35:36,400
And when you zoom out, it still
makes this realistic sort of bread.

460
00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:40,280
So we see that he's a good observer
also of light and dark

461
00:35:40,280 --> 00:35:43,000
and how you have your space

462
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:46,440
almost sort of created
by light and shadow.

463
00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:48,240
So behind,
for example, the milkmaid,

464
00:35:48,240 --> 00:35:50,640
which the light comes from the left,

465
00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:52,960
so her right side is lit up,

466
00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:56,120
but she's standing then next to
the darker part of the background.

467
00:35:56,120 --> 00:35:57,600
While, on the other side,

468
00:35:57,600 --> 00:36:01,760
where she is dark,
the wall is much lighter.

469
00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:04,560
So with that,
you already get much more depth.

470
00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:13,800
This is a back room where
you can see the stains on the walls.

471
00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:16,120
This is a view so intimate

472
00:36:16,120 --> 00:36:19,880
that you can see where the milkmaid
has rolled up her sleeves,

473
00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:23,200
and you can see the line on her arm
where the sunburn stops,

474
00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:26,520
and she's pulled up her sleeves
and presumably washed her hands

475
00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:30,320
to do this particular sort of
bit of work in the creamery.

476
00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:32,240
And you can see the white flesh
of her skin

477
00:36:32,240 --> 00:36:33,640
where it's never seen the sun.

478
00:36:33,640 --> 00:36:36,320
It's extraordinarily detailed
and yet so monumental,

479
00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:40,320
and he's making something so mundane
so monumental.

480
00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:42,320
The way he plays with the light,

481
00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:46,320
the way he takes human life
and treats it like a still life,

482
00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:50,240
the way he takes one focus
like a photographer would,

483
00:36:50,240 --> 00:36:53,320
and the way he plays
with the idea of outline.

484
00:36:53,320 --> 00:36:57,120
You know, his extraordinary
versatility with paint.

485
00:36:57,120 --> 00:37:00,640
To be so versatile and yet never
to show you his brushstroke.

486
00:37:00,640 --> 00:37:02,600
That is really the trick
of a conjurer.

487
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:04,680
This is a magician's work
we're seeing.

488
00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:13,960
TACO:
I think the fundamental difference

489
00:37:13,960 --> 00:37:18,800
between Dutch artists
at the time of Vermeer

490
00:37:18,800 --> 00:37:22,800
and for example,
Catholic or Spanish artists

491
00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:26,320
was that the Netherlands
was a Protestant country.

492
00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:29,440
So even though Vermeer
was a Catholic,

493
00:37:29,440 --> 00:37:36,080
the subjects he paints are mainly
for a country that's Protestant,

494
00:37:36,080 --> 00:37:39,480
where you did not make depictions
of Christ,

495
00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:43,920
or you also didn't make depictions
of the king

496
00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:46,000
because it was not only
a Protestant country,

497
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:47,840
but it was also a republic.

498
00:37:47,840 --> 00:37:52,880
The burghers of the country,
those were the people who ruled.

499
00:37:52,880 --> 00:37:56,320
And that was one of the causes

500
00:37:56,320 --> 00:38:00,840
why artists started
to depict everyday scenes.

501
00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:05,160
And Vermeer is the master
in depicting everyday scenes.

502
00:38:05,160 --> 00:38:08,120
And there's no such painting
as The Milkmaid,

503
00:38:08,120 --> 00:38:11,520
where he makes a woman
pouring out milk

504
00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:15,320
into nearly a religious experience,
you could say.

505
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:20,080
She's nearly the kind of...
a secular Mary on the canvas.

506
00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:22,760
And I think that
that's really such a difference

507
00:38:22,760 --> 00:38:27,560
to make the everyday important
by painting it.

508
00:39:09,600 --> 00:39:12,320
ROBERT LINDSAY:
A young woman sits by a window

509
00:39:12,320 --> 00:39:16,120
holding a lute,
with confidence and an easy manner.

510
00:39:17,160 --> 00:39:20,880
She appears to be tuning the lute
after playing, perhaps,

511
00:39:20,880 --> 00:39:27,600
the pleasure of which still remains
in her gentle smile and bright eyes,

512
00:39:27,600 --> 00:39:31,040
dream-like and contemplative.

513
00:39:31,040 --> 00:39:34,360
The staging is simple but dramatic,

514
00:39:34,360 --> 00:39:38,080
with a shaft of pale light
illuminating the scene.

515
00:39:38,080 --> 00:39:41,320
On the wall is a map of Europe,

516
00:39:41,320 --> 00:39:44,560
but her attentions
are beyond this room,

517
00:39:44,560 --> 00:39:48,680
to the window,
to someone passing by, perhaps.

518
00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:53,080
The rough sketch of a viola da gamba

519
00:39:53,080 --> 00:39:58,160
and the flow of song books
across the table and on the floor

520
00:39:58,160 --> 00:40:02,080
might suggest the prospect
of a duet,

521
00:40:02,080 --> 00:40:07,040
whereas the dark chair opposite
implies an absence.

522
00:40:08,160 --> 00:40:10,360
A prospective visitor,

523
00:40:10,360 --> 00:40:13,640
or someone who has just departed?

524
00:40:13,640 --> 00:40:16,880
The scene is tinged with excitement.

525
00:40:16,880 --> 00:40:21,520
The young woman dresses elegantly
in yellow with ermine trim.

526
00:40:21,520 --> 00:40:26,080
The fabric neatly drapes
around her young shoulders,

527
00:40:26,080 --> 00:40:31,200
her fine neck articulated
with a line of small pearls.

528
00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:34,640
This is in contrast
to a large glass earring,

529
00:40:34,640 --> 00:40:40,680
its precious nature defined
by a single dot of white paint.

530
00:40:44,200 --> 00:40:48,240
Here, life is fleeting,
like the transitory nature of music.

531
00:40:48,240 --> 00:40:51,200
There is a union of senses.

532
00:40:51,200 --> 00:40:58,040
Everything is balanced by a diffused
moment of private contemplation.

533
00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:04,200
There's no other country in Europe

534
00:41:04,200 --> 00:41:06,960
where paintings
are sold in the numbers

535
00:41:06,960 --> 00:41:09,560
as is happening in the Netherlands.

536
00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:12,200
And what we see
is it's the burghers,

537
00:41:12,200 --> 00:41:15,800
so it's the middle-class,
collecting paintings.

538
00:41:15,800 --> 00:41:18,280
And so when you look into
an inventory

539
00:41:18,280 --> 00:41:22,320
of an average family in Delft,
for example, in the 17th century,

540
00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:27,200
you can find descriptions
of dozens of paintings already.

541
00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:31,200
There must have been a conversation

542
00:41:31,200 --> 00:41:34,200
between Vermeer as an artist
and his audience.

543
00:41:34,200 --> 00:41:37,200
So he must have been very well aware

544
00:41:37,200 --> 00:41:40,760
of his audience for whom he painted.

545
00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:43,720
I think one of the aspects
that's crucial

546
00:41:43,720 --> 00:41:46,160
is that there appears to be

547
00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:49,560
a couple of collectors
that help him...

548
00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:53,200
to start flying as an artist.

549
00:41:53,200 --> 00:41:57,200
And it's Pieter van Ruijven,
who was a wealthy man,

550
00:41:57,200 --> 00:41:59,200
together with Maria de Knuijt

551
00:41:59,200 --> 00:42:03,800
and in the past, we always tended
to focus on him.

552
00:42:03,800 --> 00:42:06,480
But we now know
that Maria was a neighbour.

553
00:42:06,480 --> 00:42:10,480
I mean, she was living in
the same street as Vermeer as well.

554
00:42:10,480 --> 00:42:14,200
She must have known him
as a young kid already.

555
00:42:14,200 --> 00:42:17,200
And they started to give them money

556
00:42:17,200 --> 00:42:21,320
at crucial moments in their early
life as a youngly wed couple.

557
00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:26,680
But soon afterwards they must have
started to buy the first paintings,

558
00:42:26,680 --> 00:42:30,240
and he was really lucky
to have a couple like them around.

559
00:43:04,200 --> 00:43:07,200
RACHEL:
Woman Writing a Letter with her Maid

560
00:43:07,200 --> 00:43:10,200
is a peculiarly interesting
and intriguing painting to me

561
00:43:10,200 --> 00:43:13,200
because I think
in this particular painting

562
00:43:13,200 --> 00:43:15,200
when Vermeer
is actually saying,

563
00:43:15,200 --> 00:43:19,200
this is the reason that
you should look at paintings,

564
00:43:19,200 --> 00:43:21,200
and this is the reason
that a painting

565
00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:24,200
that looks a little bit quiet
and a little bit boring

566
00:43:24,200 --> 00:43:28,960
and could easily be passed over
is actually riveting.

567
00:43:28,960 --> 00:43:30,760
You get this snapshot moment,

568
00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:33,200
but it's never stilled
at the moment of drama

569
00:43:33,200 --> 00:43:36,960
when people are sort of going,
"argh," or making some great scene.

570
00:43:36,960 --> 00:43:39,880
It's the little
sort of interstitial moment in life,

571
00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:44,760
the little bit that actually will
never get onto the movie poster.

572
00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:46,720
No-one's going to choose that.

573
00:43:46,720 --> 00:43:49,200
Why is the woman
writing this letter?

574
00:43:49,200 --> 00:43:52,200
She appears to have
opened a letter already.

575
00:43:52,200 --> 00:43:55,200
It looks to me
as if it's probably a letter

576
00:43:55,200 --> 00:43:57,200
that she had already
written herself,

577
00:43:57,200 --> 00:44:00,200
because the sealing wax
that she had used to seal it

578
00:44:00,200 --> 00:44:03,200
is still there,
it's lying on the floor beside it.

579
00:44:03,200 --> 00:44:06,200
And yet she's crumpled it up
and thrown it on the floor

580
00:44:06,200 --> 00:44:08,200
and she's started writing again.

581
00:44:08,200 --> 00:44:11,200
She's re-thought her idea
about why she's going to write,

582
00:44:11,200 --> 00:44:14,200
and she's writing it
with a fierce determination.

583
00:44:14,200 --> 00:44:18,200
She's locked into her idea.
She's looking down.

584
00:44:18,200 --> 00:44:21,240
The maid is actually quite bored
and she's looking out of the window.

585
00:44:22,200 --> 00:44:24,240
She's smiling at something.

586
00:44:25,200 --> 00:44:28,200
Possibly there's a manservant
who she's in love with,

587
00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:30,200
there's someone passing
outside that window.

588
00:44:30,200 --> 00:44:34,240
As always with Vermeer, we're not
allowed to see outside the window.

589
00:44:35,200 --> 00:44:38,200
So, already he's saying, I'm showing
you a world within a world.

590
00:44:38,200 --> 00:44:40,200
And I've drawn the curtain aside

591
00:44:40,200 --> 00:44:44,400
from this extraordinary theatrical
stage set I've created.

592
00:44:44,400 --> 00:44:47,840
So, already he's playing with
our layers of perception like that.

593
00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:51,800
And then behind is another picture,
which is The Finding of Moses.

594
00:44:51,800 --> 00:44:56,200
The idea of an orphaned boy
lost by his real mother,

595
00:44:56,200 --> 00:44:58,840
found by a pharaoh's daughter.

596
00:44:58,840 --> 00:45:01,520
We know that the woman writing
the letter in Vermeer is rich.

597
00:45:01,520 --> 00:45:05,200
There's a coat of arms on her
window. She's beautifully dressed.

598
00:45:05,200 --> 00:45:09,200
She has a maid servant who she can
afford to keep standing around.

599
00:45:09,200 --> 00:45:11,520
She's got a beautiful house.

600
00:45:11,520 --> 00:45:14,520
This is a very rich vein
of storytelling

601
00:45:14,520 --> 00:45:16,520
and a very intriguing vein
of storytelling.

602
00:45:16,520 --> 00:45:20,520
Does this cast a light on the whole
world that Vermeer is showing?

603
00:45:20,520 --> 00:45:22,840
He's showing us exactly why

604
00:45:22,840 --> 00:45:27,960
a quiet moment can be one
of the most intriguing moments.

605
00:45:27,960 --> 00:45:30,520
He's showing us the potential
of so many stories,

606
00:45:30,520 --> 00:45:32,040
so much intrigue.

607
00:45:32,040 --> 00:45:37,520
He's showing us how something
very sort of colloquial,

608
00:45:37,520 --> 00:45:39,800
if you like,
can be utterly captivating.

609
00:45:44,960 --> 00:45:48,880
GREGOR: Letters are the best manner
to show how the world outside

610
00:45:48,880 --> 00:45:50,880
is present in a painting.

611
00:45:50,880 --> 00:45:53,840
Reading a letter means
that you formulate as you speak

612
00:45:53,840 --> 00:45:57,000
the written words in your mind.

613
00:45:57,000 --> 00:45:58,520
So he loves to paint windows

614
00:45:58,520 --> 00:46:02,520
and he loves also to paint sometimes
women looking out of the window

615
00:46:02,520 --> 00:46:06,520
so that there also the outside
and the inside is coming together.

616
00:46:06,520 --> 00:46:10,040
So, it is a little bit about
introversion and extroversion

617
00:46:10,040 --> 00:46:12,640
and it is about the inner
and the outer world.

618
00:46:12,640 --> 00:46:14,560
And he plays with that.

619
00:46:15,520 --> 00:46:19,560
PIETER: Time is crucial to Vermeer
in different ways.

620
00:46:20,520 --> 00:46:22,120
When you look at the paintings,

621
00:46:22,120 --> 00:46:26,880
it's that one and only moment
he is grabbing.

622
00:46:26,880 --> 00:46:30,840
These are particular moments
fixed in time.

623
00:46:30,840 --> 00:46:33,800
There is a before
and there is an after.

624
00:46:33,800 --> 00:46:36,520
They can last for a longer time,

625
00:46:36,520 --> 00:46:40,320
but he really knows
to grab time in these paintings.

626
00:46:40,320 --> 00:46:45,200
And that's an unbelievable quality
as an artist.

627
00:47:28,520 --> 00:47:32,520
There is a lightness
to the conversation in this scene.

628
00:47:32,520 --> 00:47:37,520
A young woman leans in,
to engage with her imposing visitor,

629
00:47:37,520 --> 00:47:42,040
an officer in a red uniform
with a big black hat.

630
00:47:42,040 --> 00:47:47,520
The room looks familiar to them
and a private place to meet.

631
00:47:47,520 --> 00:47:53,520
They share a glass of wine
and the young woman seems charmed

632
00:47:53,520 --> 00:47:57,160
by what is being said
by the swashbuckling officer,

633
00:47:57,160 --> 00:48:00,760
who cocks a confident arm
on his hip.

634
00:48:00,760 --> 00:48:04,520
We only see a glimpse
of his furtive face

635
00:48:04,520 --> 00:48:08,560
as he sits upright and speaks
directly to the young woman.

636
00:48:09,520 --> 00:48:12,560
A dark silhouette
in a day-lit space.

637
00:48:15,520 --> 00:48:22,160
Her hand is gently open with
acceptance or perhaps amusement?

638
00:48:22,160 --> 00:48:26,920
Is this courtship or just banter
between occasional friends?

639
00:48:28,960 --> 00:48:31,520
There is a rare glimpse
of the outside world

640
00:48:31,520 --> 00:48:33,520
reflected in the open window

641
00:48:33,520 --> 00:48:37,520
and the beautifully rendered map
on the wall

642
00:48:37,520 --> 00:48:41,520
evokes the great age
of Dutch exploration and commerce

643
00:48:41,520 --> 00:48:44,120
in Holland and West Friesland.

644
00:48:45,280 --> 00:48:49,040
Its accuracy is realistic
and much admired.

645
00:48:51,040 --> 00:48:53,240
But there is ambiguity in this work.

646
00:48:54,520 --> 00:48:57,040
The reality of the scene
confuses us,

647
00:48:57,040 --> 00:49:00,240
because it implies a knowable truth,

648
00:49:00,240 --> 00:49:04,560
which Vermeer
never confirms or denies.

649
00:49:06,360 --> 00:49:10,520
He allows a void
to form in our imagination,

650
00:49:10,520 --> 00:49:14,520
building an intriguing,
but incomplete story,

651
00:49:14,520 --> 00:49:17,560
and then he invites us in.

652
00:49:19,800 --> 00:49:25,160
To create an image
that's an illusion,

653
00:49:25,160 --> 00:49:29,960
that gives the feeling
that you as a viewer are there,

654
00:49:29,960 --> 00:49:33,040
actually looking at somebody
doing something,

655
00:49:33,040 --> 00:49:35,200
you have to create a little story.

656
00:49:35,200 --> 00:49:39,520
Because the problem with painting
is that it's not moving.

657
00:49:39,520 --> 00:49:43,240
It's not a film.
So, you can only create the story

658
00:49:43,240 --> 00:49:48,120
to create a moment before
and then create a moment after.

659
00:49:53,120 --> 00:49:56,120
I wouldn't describe Vermeer
as virtuoso.

660
00:49:56,120 --> 00:49:59,520
I would describe him more
as obsessed with light.

661
00:49:59,520 --> 00:50:01,960
And that's what makes him special.

662
00:50:01,960 --> 00:50:06,520
It is really this digging
into what is light?

663
00:50:06,520 --> 00:50:09,520
How can I make
the illusion of light?

664
00:50:09,520 --> 00:50:11,520
How does an object reflect?

665
00:50:11,520 --> 00:50:14,080
And I think that
that's one of the reasons

666
00:50:14,080 --> 00:50:17,520
why it took him so much time
to paint each painting.

667
00:50:17,520 --> 00:50:21,520
Because first he analyses
the individual props,

668
00:50:21,520 --> 00:50:23,240
the individual objects,

669
00:50:23,240 --> 00:50:25,040
and he moulds them in a way

670
00:50:25,040 --> 00:50:27,520
that he thinks
that the light is reflected

671
00:50:27,520 --> 00:50:29,520
in the best way possible.

672
00:50:29,520 --> 00:50:33,200
And then he has to connect them
to each other,

673
00:50:33,200 --> 00:50:35,880
because otherwise
you would have a painting

674
00:50:35,880 --> 00:50:39,520
which would have, like,
loose ingredients floating around.

675
00:50:39,520 --> 00:50:42,920
But he connects them then
through light, again,

676
00:50:42,920 --> 00:50:48,200
and that makes them into an image
that never becomes paint.

677
00:50:48,200 --> 00:50:51,840
The paint has dissolved
and you stand there in that room.

678
00:51:25,520 --> 00:51:29,520
The Lacemaker is, for me,
one of the most beautiful paintings.

679
00:51:29,520 --> 00:51:33,400
This painting is extraordinary,
but why is it beautiful?

680
00:51:33,400 --> 00:51:36,520
One thing is that Vermeer
is coming close to a woman,

681
00:51:36,520 --> 00:51:39,840
so close
as you normally wouldn't do.

682
00:51:39,840 --> 00:51:43,040
So, I think it's only
less than a metre

683
00:51:43,040 --> 00:51:45,520
and he is observing
what she's doing.

684
00:51:45,520 --> 00:51:47,520
So, you are really close to her

685
00:51:47,520 --> 00:51:49,760
and the hands of her

686
00:51:49,760 --> 00:51:54,520
hold the little, little threads
of her work, of the lace.

687
00:51:54,520 --> 00:51:58,520
And these threads are painted
absolutely sharp, totally sharp.

688
00:51:58,520 --> 00:52:02,880
So, our view is focused
on these little threads there.

689
00:52:02,880 --> 00:52:06,640
So other artists in his time
depicting this scene,

690
00:52:06,640 --> 00:52:09,360
paint my finger here sharp
and also this hand sharp.

691
00:52:09,360 --> 00:52:11,120
But he doesn't.

692
00:52:11,120 --> 00:52:13,280
So, in the foreground
of this painting,

693
00:52:13,280 --> 00:52:17,000
the other threads you see,
they're absolutely blurred.

694
00:52:17,000 --> 00:52:20,120
And a lot of dots of the colour.

695
00:52:20,120 --> 00:52:23,040
So, what he is doing
is he has one focus

696
00:52:23,040 --> 00:52:27,000
and he accepts that is
what we see and notice,

697
00:52:27,000 --> 00:52:29,520
and not just always change
to the next focus.

698
00:52:29,520 --> 00:52:33,520
So, it's a little wonder of optics,
what you can see there.

699
00:52:33,520 --> 00:52:36,520
And this underlines and strengthens,
of course,

700
00:52:36,520 --> 00:52:38,960
this effect
that you are so close to her.

701
00:52:38,960 --> 00:52:41,000
Now, how could he learn that?

702
00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:43,560
How could he see it?
It is really amazing.

703
00:52:46,520 --> 00:52:49,520
If you were an artist
in the Netherlands

704
00:52:49,520 --> 00:52:52,040
at the time of Vermeer,

705
00:52:52,040 --> 00:52:58,560
there was a lot of research
being done in science, on lenses,

706
00:52:58,560 --> 00:53:02,080
and Vermeer,
obsessed with observing,

707
00:53:02,080 --> 00:53:05,520
must have known
of the camera obscura

708
00:53:05,520 --> 00:53:11,360
and must have also used it
to analyse what we actually see

709
00:53:11,360 --> 00:53:13,600
and how you can translate it
to the picture plane.

710
00:53:13,600 --> 00:53:18,520
But a camera obscura,
as the word says, it's a dark room,

711
00:53:18,520 --> 00:53:22,920
so you can't really paint in it,
because it's dark what you see.

712
00:53:22,920 --> 00:53:27,520
But you do get an image which is
in front of you, a real image,

713
00:53:27,520 --> 00:53:31,520
through either a very small hole
or a lens

714
00:53:31,520 --> 00:53:34,520
or two lenses onto a surface.

715
00:53:34,520 --> 00:53:36,520
So, there he could have observed

716
00:53:36,520 --> 00:53:42,520
that what is in focus
is very well defined

717
00:53:42,520 --> 00:53:45,680
and that the surroundings of that
are more blurred.

718
00:53:45,680 --> 00:53:48,520
He was close to the Jesuits,

719
00:53:48,520 --> 00:53:53,520
and the Jesuits did a lot of
research on optics and on light

720
00:53:53,520 --> 00:53:56,560
as they saw that
as the light of God.

721
00:55:22,520 --> 00:55:25,520
Vermeer draws us further and further

722
00:55:25,520 --> 00:55:28,280
in the course of this show
into the interior world.

723
00:55:28,280 --> 00:55:31,520
And I don't just mean
the interior world of the room,

724
00:55:31,520 --> 00:55:35,200
the room which doesn't
have window views outwards.

725
00:55:35,200 --> 00:55:40,520
He holds us in, in a way,
in a miniature world,

726
00:55:40,520 --> 00:55:42,880
the domestic world.

727
00:55:42,880 --> 00:55:47,000
But, by doing that,
and precisely by doing that,

728
00:55:47,000 --> 00:55:48,960
he opens the world outwards

729
00:55:48,960 --> 00:55:52,080
because he opens up
the whole emotional world

730
00:55:52,080 --> 00:55:53,960
of these people that he's painting.

731
00:55:53,960 --> 00:55:56,920
So, he takes us
deep into their minds,

732
00:55:56,920 --> 00:56:02,080
these women who sit so still
and, in a way, so trapped.

733
00:56:02,080 --> 00:56:06,200
And yet Vermeer sees,
"No, she has a rich life."

734
00:56:06,200 --> 00:56:09,920
She has a life
that he is going to show us

735
00:56:09,920 --> 00:56:12,360
exactly what she's capable of.

736
00:56:14,880 --> 00:56:18,400
But also, even more subtly,
there's a third interior world

737
00:56:18,400 --> 00:56:20,760
that he opens up,
and that is our world

738
00:56:20,760 --> 00:56:26,720
because, in a way, by closing off
that entire outer world,

739
00:56:26,720 --> 00:56:30,520
he opens that inner world and makes
it contiguous with our world.

740
00:56:30,520 --> 00:56:35,520
We are kept out of it by the wall
of a curtain or a chair

741
00:56:35,520 --> 00:56:38,520
or whatever he puts
in the foreground,

742
00:56:38,520 --> 00:56:40,840
he makes us, and he places us,

743
00:56:40,840 --> 00:56:44,520
very, very concretely there
as a spectator.

744
00:56:44,520 --> 00:56:48,520
And, therefore,
just as the curtain is drawn aside

745
00:56:48,520 --> 00:56:51,840
as to this little scene
that we stand witness to,

746
00:56:51,840 --> 00:56:55,520
the curtains to our own minds
are drawn aside

747
00:56:55,520 --> 00:57:00,440
and we, and all that we bring to it
within our own heads,

748
00:57:00,440 --> 00:57:03,560
becomes a part
of this space he shows.

749
00:57:05,520 --> 00:57:10,080
It's a very, very peculiar way
that he has of working

750
00:57:10,080 --> 00:57:13,000
and a very rare way
he has of working.

751
00:57:13,000 --> 00:57:16,520
Because where so many painters
draw us in

752
00:57:16,520 --> 00:57:20,280
and set us almost like actors
in the scene,

753
00:57:20,280 --> 00:57:24,520
"You too are a player
in this histrionic drama,"

754
00:57:24,520 --> 00:57:27,520
instead of histrionics,
we get hermetics.

755
00:57:27,520 --> 00:57:30,520
We get a very closed thing

756
00:57:30,520 --> 00:57:33,520
that asks us
you too are a part of a drama,

757
00:57:33,520 --> 00:57:37,520
which is perhaps a spiritual drama
and an emotional drama,

758
00:57:37,520 --> 00:57:41,560
but it's your interior world
that is being drawn in.

759
00:58:10,520 --> 00:58:14,520
I think the Girl
with a Pearl Earring is so loved

760
00:58:14,520 --> 00:58:18,680
because of the simplicity
of its beauty.

761
00:58:18,680 --> 00:58:22,840
She looks at us
in her highly charged way

762
00:58:22,840 --> 00:58:28,520
and yet it's so simple,
in a moment of time, of happiness.

763
00:58:28,520 --> 00:58:31,520
You can't kind of deconstruct it.

764
00:58:31,520 --> 00:58:37,520
He paints light
and he captures light on her skin,

765
00:58:37,520 --> 00:58:40,520
on her lips, on the pearl,
in every detail,

766
00:58:40,520 --> 00:58:43,520
in such a way
that it really simmers.

767
00:58:43,520 --> 00:58:49,960
And the dark background, which
originally was a dark green hanging,

768
00:58:49,960 --> 00:58:53,520
which might have distracted
a bit more than it does now,

769
00:58:53,520 --> 00:58:56,440
but still,
that only helps enhancing

770
00:58:56,440 --> 00:58:59,280
the directness of her face.

771
00:58:59,280 --> 00:59:03,840
And he must have used a model,
but it is idealised.

772
00:59:03,840 --> 00:59:07,520
He can't have painted this
from his memory,

773
00:59:07,520 --> 00:59:09,920
even though
he was a fantastic painter.

774
00:59:09,920 --> 00:59:13,160
The detail in observation is so big

775
00:59:13,160 --> 00:59:16,800
and the way
he observes the reflection of light

776
00:59:16,800 --> 00:59:19,520
on the smallest patch of skin,

777
00:59:19,520 --> 00:59:22,520
on her ear lobe, everywhere,

778
00:59:22,520 --> 00:59:25,520
that must have been done through
observation of a model.

779
00:59:25,520 --> 00:59:27,560
But then you make it more beautiful.

780
00:59:28,840 --> 00:59:33,040
The Girl with a Pearl Earring
is what we call a Tronie,

781
00:59:33,040 --> 00:59:38,520
which is an imaginative figure,
an imaginative head.

782
00:59:38,520 --> 00:59:42,200
And obviously you wouldn't see
people in the street

783
00:59:42,200 --> 00:59:44,080
wearing this headdress.

784
00:59:44,080 --> 00:59:47,080
But you also, the other way around,

785
00:59:47,080 --> 00:59:52,560
can't think of this painting of
a woman with a 17th century dress,

786
00:59:52,560 --> 00:59:54,720
because that would take
your attention

787
00:59:54,720 --> 00:59:57,440
off her face and off the pearl.

788
01:00:00,520 --> 01:00:04,920
I think that the relation
between the colours,

789
01:00:04,920 --> 01:00:09,880
so between the ochre, the blue,
the pink of the face,

790
01:00:09,880 --> 01:00:15,520
is necessary to create
this very focused image.

791
01:00:15,520 --> 01:00:18,920
And that's where the mastery
of Vermeer lies.

792
01:00:18,920 --> 01:00:24,120
He takes components
and he composes them in such a way

793
01:00:24,120 --> 01:00:27,520
that you actually are focused
to watch the thing

794
01:00:27,520 --> 01:00:29,720
he wants you to look at.

795
01:00:29,720 --> 01:00:32,240
And that's not only her eyes,

796
01:00:32,240 --> 01:00:35,040
it's not even that much
the pearl earring,

797
01:00:35,040 --> 01:00:39,720
but it's the lips, and the mouth
that's slightly opened

798
01:00:39,720 --> 01:00:43,080
and you wouldn't have had
a portrait like that.

799
01:00:43,080 --> 01:00:45,400
because that was just not done.

800
01:00:45,400 --> 01:00:48,000
It was outside the etiquette
of that time.

801
01:00:49,120 --> 01:00:53,000
We see eyebrows.
She hasn't really got eyebrows.

802
01:00:53,000 --> 01:00:57,520
So, where other painters
know there are eyebrows,

803
01:00:57,520 --> 01:01:00,520
so they paint a line,
because that's what eyebrows are,

804
01:01:00,520 --> 01:01:04,520
Vermeer only indicates it
through tones of light.

805
01:01:04,520 --> 01:01:07,080
And, therefore, we see eyebrows.

806
01:01:07,080 --> 01:01:11,520
With the nose,
it's not really delineated.

807
01:01:11,520 --> 01:01:13,280
We see a nose,

808
01:01:13,280 --> 01:01:16,560
but it's just a reflection of light
in a blotch of paint.

809
01:01:19,520 --> 01:01:25,040
We've often thought
that the figures in the paintings

810
01:01:25,040 --> 01:01:28,080
are not family members

811
01:01:28,080 --> 01:01:32,240
and that it's all a kind of
19th century romantic idea.

812
01:01:32,240 --> 01:01:35,200
But, in the end,
when you think about it,

813
01:01:35,200 --> 01:01:37,400
Vermeer must have used models,

814
01:01:37,400 --> 01:01:40,520
and then it's very likely
to take a family member

815
01:01:40,520 --> 01:01:45,720
or a neighbour or somebody
who's in your vicinity as a model.

816
01:01:45,720 --> 01:01:49,880
So, it could very well be that this
was one of his daughters

817
01:01:49,880 --> 01:01:51,680
or his wife.

818
01:01:51,680 --> 01:01:54,280
But it's for us, as a viewer,

819
01:01:54,280 --> 01:01:57,920
not the intention
that we see a family member,

820
01:01:57,920 --> 01:02:00,240
so we'll never really know.

821
01:03:03,520 --> 01:03:05,680
What Vermeer is doing
with his paintings,

822
01:03:05,680 --> 01:03:07,360
and especially these paintings

823
01:03:07,360 --> 01:03:09,520
in which we see
people playing music,

824
01:03:09,520 --> 01:03:13,240
for example, or where musical
instruments are laying on the floor,

825
01:03:13,240 --> 01:03:16,520
it's almost as if they're reacting
on more senses.

826
01:03:16,520 --> 01:03:18,520
It's not only looking,

827
01:03:18,520 --> 01:03:21,520
but it's also hearing, which we see,

828
01:03:21,520 --> 01:03:23,520
and sometimes even smelling.

829
01:03:23,520 --> 01:03:26,520
I mean, he really tries
to create something

830
01:03:26,520 --> 01:03:28,960
that applies to different senses.

831
01:03:30,200 --> 01:03:33,680
And one of the things I always ask
when I'm in front of a painting

832
01:03:33,680 --> 01:03:36,200
which is, again,
about someone playing music,

833
01:03:36,200 --> 01:03:39,880
is did he play the harpsichord
himself, for example?

834
01:03:39,880 --> 01:03:42,520
Or did he sing or whistle
when he was painting?

835
01:03:42,520 --> 01:03:44,520
Was it about
the pleasure of painting

836
01:03:44,520 --> 01:03:48,960
and what happened to the man
when he created this?

837
01:03:48,960 --> 01:03:51,520
When you look at these paintings

838
01:03:51,520 --> 01:03:55,520
and think about them
and how he created them,

839
01:03:55,520 --> 01:03:57,520
it's also
about the pleasure of painting.

840
01:03:57,520 --> 01:04:00,520
And I very much believe
that pleasure for him

841
01:04:00,520 --> 01:04:02,520
as someone who created

842
01:04:02,520 --> 01:04:07,560
just two or three paintings a year
on average was crucial.

843
01:04:52,520 --> 01:04:56,520
The Lady Writing is exceptional
in the work of Vermeer,

844
01:04:56,520 --> 01:04:58,800
like The Girl with a Pearl.

845
01:04:58,800 --> 01:05:03,520
She's one of the few that actually
looks at us, the viewer.

846
01:05:03,520 --> 01:05:05,520
But that's also the story,

847
01:05:05,520 --> 01:05:09,520
because you know that a second ago

848
01:05:09,520 --> 01:05:11,520
she was writing undisturbed.

849
01:05:11,520 --> 01:05:16,120
And then when you look at her,
she's kind of distracted

850
01:05:16,120 --> 01:05:18,480
and she looks up at you, the viewer.

851
01:05:18,480 --> 01:05:20,880
So, there he creates
his little story

852
01:05:20,880 --> 01:05:23,520
where we can imagine a moment before

853
01:05:23,520 --> 01:05:26,960
the amazement,
oh, is that you, the viewer?

854
01:05:26,960 --> 01:05:29,080
And then afterwards,
when we walk on,

855
01:05:29,080 --> 01:05:31,160
she will go back to writing again.

856
01:05:31,160 --> 01:05:36,520
And that gives this movement
that's dynamic.

857
01:05:36,520 --> 01:05:40,960
Yet at the same moment,
it's a very calm moment,

858
01:05:40,960 --> 01:05:43,560
because she's sitting there writing.

859
01:05:47,520 --> 01:05:50,480
Although he is a superlative master,

860
01:05:50,480 --> 01:05:52,520
he is superlatively skilled,

861
01:05:52,520 --> 01:05:54,480
you cannot see a brushstroke.

862
01:05:54,480 --> 01:05:55,880
How does he do that?

863
01:05:55,880 --> 01:05:58,120
Look at the painting
and you will see.

864
01:05:58,120 --> 01:06:00,520
Sometimes you try
and focus on something.

865
01:06:00,520 --> 01:06:03,520
You think, if I leant closer,
I would definitely see that.

866
01:06:03,520 --> 01:06:05,760
But no, you wouldn't,
because he's held you

867
01:06:05,760 --> 01:06:07,520
in the distance from it.

868
01:06:07,520 --> 01:06:09,480
These are paintings that work

869
01:06:09,480 --> 01:06:14,520
on the most skilled visual level
that there is,

870
01:06:14,520 --> 01:06:19,200
the most technically masterful
level there is,

871
01:06:19,200 --> 01:06:21,520
and that is why you have
to see them in real life.

872
01:06:21,520 --> 01:06:24,000
And when you see them
in real life like that,

873
01:06:24,000 --> 01:06:28,880
you realise why they have attained
that iconic status,

874
01:06:28,880 --> 01:06:30,760
which is why they were given
the charisma,

875
01:06:30,760 --> 01:06:33,240
which is why they were fed to you
in every art history book,

876
01:06:33,240 --> 01:06:35,880
which is why you're rushing
to see them in this show.

877
01:07:14,880 --> 01:07:19,520
This picture portrays
a moment of theatrical drama.

878
01:07:19,520 --> 01:07:23,520
The usual constructs of a room
are stripped away.

879
01:07:23,520 --> 01:07:26,520
The mistress and maid are softly lit

880
01:07:26,520 --> 01:07:30,000
and seem to have emerged
from the darkness beyond.

881
01:07:30,000 --> 01:07:34,560
We sense the scene has paused
at a moment of tension.

882
01:07:35,560 --> 01:07:38,520
The maid's dutiful delivery
of a letter

883
01:07:38,520 --> 01:07:41,080
and the mistress'
thoughtful anticipation

884
01:07:41,080 --> 01:07:43,360
of what its contents might be.

885
01:07:43,360 --> 01:07:48,960
Are we to presume this is a love
letter sent, or an unexpected reply?

886
01:07:50,520 --> 01:07:54,520
The mistress wears
an exquisite fur-trimmed jacket

887
01:07:54,520 --> 01:07:58,520
and her golden hair
has been styled and adorned

888
01:07:58,520 --> 01:08:01,320
with a snaking band
of bright pearls.

889
01:08:02,480 --> 01:08:05,040
A large earring hangs effortlessly,

890
01:08:05,040 --> 01:08:08,560
rendered in white,
with a milky glow.

891
01:08:10,520 --> 01:08:12,520
The maid, by contrast,

892
01:08:12,520 --> 01:08:15,520
is in plain working clothes,

893
01:08:15,520 --> 01:08:19,200
but displays
an element of complicit knowingness

894
01:08:19,200 --> 01:08:21,400
in her polite expression.

895
01:08:23,240 --> 01:08:25,960
The setting of the mistress and maid

896
01:08:25,960 --> 01:08:31,040
in an upper-class domestic scene
was enormously popular as a subject.

897
01:08:31,040 --> 01:08:34,040
Vermeer returns to the theme
several times.

898
01:08:34,040 --> 01:08:38,200
It offered an opportunity
to reflect on social structures

899
01:08:38,200 --> 01:08:42,120
and the role of fashion as
an indicator of status and wealth.

900
01:08:43,520 --> 01:08:46,520
The striking yellow jacket
worn by the mistress

901
01:08:46,520 --> 01:08:50,240
makes an appearance
in five of Vermeer's paintings.

902
01:08:50,240 --> 01:08:52,960
Maybe the model is the same person,

903
01:08:52,960 --> 01:08:57,520
or maybe Vermeer was simply
attracted to its dynamic colour?

904
01:08:57,520 --> 01:08:59,440
Or maybe both?

905
01:08:59,440 --> 01:09:03,840
Nevertheless, this was
a distinct and popular prop,

906
01:09:03,840 --> 01:09:09,960
that radiated luxury
in a spectacular and theatrical way.

907
01:09:18,520 --> 01:09:21,520
Vermeer realises
that colour is not colour.

908
01:09:21,520 --> 01:09:23,240
Colour is light

909
01:09:23,240 --> 01:09:27,200
and it's a reflection of light
and how we perceive a colour.

910
01:09:27,200 --> 01:09:30,520
And he does that
in such a masterful way

911
01:09:30,520 --> 01:09:32,760
that when we look at the paintings,

912
01:09:32,760 --> 01:09:35,120
we don't really see colour,
we see light.

913
01:09:35,120 --> 01:09:39,920
And I think that that's something
that's different from other artists

914
01:09:39,920 --> 01:09:42,520
and the way he builds up
this reflection,

915
01:09:42,520 --> 01:09:44,920
the shimmering of the reflection,

916
01:09:44,920 --> 01:09:46,520
by sometimes using little dots,

917
01:09:46,520 --> 01:09:49,840
sometimes being very precise
in what he paints

918
01:09:49,840 --> 01:09:52,040
and what's in focus.

919
01:09:52,040 --> 01:09:53,760
And that's something,

920
01:09:53,760 --> 01:09:57,040
that it's a use of colour
that nobody before him did.

921
01:09:57,040 --> 01:10:01,200
And that's why I think he's
rightly called the master of light

922
01:10:01,200 --> 01:10:03,040
and not the master of colour.

923
01:10:50,520 --> 01:10:53,120
When we look at Vermeer paintings...

924
01:10:54,520 --> 01:10:56,920
..we always get immediately
the feeling

925
01:10:56,920 --> 01:10:59,960
there's a kind of spotlight outside.

926
01:10:59,960 --> 01:11:02,520
So, he's using one window,

927
01:11:02,520 --> 01:11:05,560
mostly at the left-hand side
of his compositions,

928
01:11:05,560 --> 01:11:09,520
where light enters the space,
enters the room,

929
01:11:09,520 --> 01:11:15,560
and he uses that throughout
his career in different ways.

930
01:11:15,560 --> 01:11:22,400
And then he's almost, well,
moving the camera into the room

931
01:11:22,400 --> 01:11:24,520
from that moment onwards

932
01:11:24,520 --> 01:11:30,160
and focusing all the time on
what is happening in the interior.

933
01:11:30,160 --> 01:11:33,520
But the light is still there
and the windows are still there.

934
01:11:33,520 --> 01:11:39,200
Sometimes we see the windows
as a kind of physical element.

935
01:11:39,200 --> 01:11:41,320
In other paintings we see the light

936
01:11:41,320 --> 01:11:45,120
and how the light is very close
to that actual window,

937
01:11:45,120 --> 01:11:50,520
which is not within the context
of the painting he created.

938
01:11:50,520 --> 01:11:56,000
But he knows how he can convince us
as a beholder

939
01:11:56,000 --> 01:11:59,160
that the light source is very close

940
01:11:59,160 --> 01:12:01,560
to the scene
he's actually depicting.

941
01:12:03,040 --> 01:12:05,920
RACHEL: I think one of the things
we always have to remember

942
01:12:05,920 --> 01:12:08,520
is these were all paintings
that were made to be lived with.

943
01:12:08,520 --> 01:12:13,200
They were made for places
and for rooms and for lives.

944
01:12:13,200 --> 01:12:16,200
And people studied them
far, far more carefully.

945
01:12:16,200 --> 01:12:18,120
People studied their worlds.

946
01:12:18,120 --> 01:12:20,760
So, the world inside your house

947
01:12:20,760 --> 01:12:24,280
was the world
that you saw to a huge amount.

948
01:12:24,280 --> 01:12:26,520
These were the television sets
of their era.

949
01:12:26,520 --> 01:12:28,880
This is how they saw everything.

950
01:12:28,880 --> 01:12:30,520
The people who saw these paintings

951
01:12:30,520 --> 01:12:33,520
would have unteased
an awful lot of the symbolism

952
01:12:33,520 --> 01:12:37,840
and the morality and the theology
and the philosophy that lay in them.

953
01:12:37,840 --> 01:12:39,520
They would have
also hugely appreciated

954
01:12:39,520 --> 01:12:42,520
and loved the sheer facility
and skill of them.

955
01:12:42,520 --> 01:12:46,080
I think these pictures were very,
very appreciated in their era

956
01:12:46,080 --> 01:12:49,120
in a way that we sometimes forget.

957
01:13:28,520 --> 01:13:32,160
I'm standing here in front of
Woman Reading a Letter in Blue

958
01:13:32,160 --> 01:13:34,960
and this painting
is so special to me,

959
01:13:34,960 --> 01:13:39,320
because this painting
has such a subtle tonality.

960
01:13:39,320 --> 01:13:42,520
We see a young woman
and in front of her there's a table

961
01:13:42,520 --> 01:13:44,240
and there's a small chest

962
01:13:44,240 --> 01:13:46,520
and in there she keeps
her most valuable possessions,

963
01:13:46,520 --> 01:13:48,760
so her pearls, but also her letters,

964
01:13:48,760 --> 01:13:52,080
and she is reading
one of these letters

965
01:13:52,080 --> 01:13:56,400
and you see her really focused
on the letter she's reading.

966
01:13:56,400 --> 01:13:59,280
This is a very intimate image
we're looking at.

967
01:14:02,760 --> 01:14:06,520
So, several years ago,
I was able to treat this painting

968
01:14:06,520 --> 01:14:08,520
and there was
a full conservation treatment,

969
01:14:08,520 --> 01:14:12,520
which entailed taking off
the old yellow varnish layers

970
01:14:12,520 --> 01:14:15,200
and there were several old repairs

971
01:14:15,200 --> 01:14:18,520
that were quite disturbing
when you looked at the painting.

972
01:14:18,520 --> 01:14:21,680
To me,
it was a very special project.

973
01:14:21,680 --> 01:14:25,080
I got to spend so much time
behind this painting

974
01:14:25,080 --> 01:14:28,080
and found even new things that,

975
01:14:28,080 --> 01:14:30,520
I thought I knew this painting
pretty well,

976
01:14:30,520 --> 01:14:34,040
but, even then, we found new things
and one of those

977
01:14:34,040 --> 01:14:38,320
is the way this beautiful contour
of the jacket was painted.

978
01:14:38,320 --> 01:14:41,560
I think it's my favourite part
of the painting.

979
01:14:42,520 --> 01:14:45,160
If you look at the contour,
it's almost glowing.

980
01:14:45,160 --> 01:14:47,040
So he painted the blue jacket,

981
01:14:47,040 --> 01:14:50,520
then painted a light blue layer
for the wall

982
01:14:50,520 --> 01:14:53,520
and then he came
with the top layer of the wall,

983
01:14:53,520 --> 01:14:57,160
continuing with leaving
a small line of this underlay

984
01:14:57,160 --> 01:14:59,200
visible along the contour,

985
01:14:59,200 --> 01:15:03,000
which gives you
a very atmospheric effect

986
01:15:03,000 --> 01:15:05,520
and, with our new research,

987
01:15:05,520 --> 01:15:09,200
it became clear that it was
even more complex than that,

988
01:15:09,200 --> 01:15:10,960
that he put on top of the jacket

989
01:15:10,960 --> 01:15:14,440
another layer
of expensive ultramarine

990
01:15:14,440 --> 01:15:18,520
and continuing a little bit
over this light blue underlayer.

991
01:15:18,520 --> 01:15:22,520
So, this overlapping of colours
leaving underlayers open,

992
01:15:22,520 --> 01:15:25,200
it's very unique to Vermeer.

993
01:15:25,200 --> 01:15:28,200
While looking at other
17th-century painters,

994
01:15:28,200 --> 01:15:33,240
it's often easier to understand
the way it was painted,

995
01:15:33,240 --> 01:15:36,520
but with Vermeer,
it's every time a big question.

996
01:15:36,520 --> 01:15:39,400
There's something magical about it.

997
01:16:06,520 --> 01:16:10,640
A finely dressed young lady
drinks a glass of wine.

998
01:16:10,640 --> 01:16:13,520
Her face is framed
by a clean, white hat

999
01:16:13,520 --> 01:16:16,520
and her arm
is folded across her body

1000
01:16:16,520 --> 01:16:21,360
as if to steady herself
for the last few sips.

1001
01:16:21,360 --> 01:16:26,520
Her dashing suitor in a black hat
and olive mantle,

1002
01:16:26,520 --> 01:16:28,520
stands impatiently

1003
01:16:28,520 --> 01:16:33,440
with an eager hand on the wine
bottle, anticipating a refill.

1004
01:16:33,440 --> 01:16:39,520
A stringed instrument, the cittern,
balances on a Spanish chair

1005
01:16:39,520 --> 01:16:42,560
and musical notebooks
lay open on the table.

1006
01:16:42,560 --> 01:16:45,520
A serenade perhaps,

1007
01:16:45,520 --> 01:16:51,120
but is this a scene of courtship
or a cautionary tale?

1008
01:16:53,520 --> 01:16:57,360
The play of light
infers the middle of the day.

1009
01:16:58,600 --> 01:17:02,240
Maybe a little too early
for drinking wine.

1010
01:17:06,520 --> 01:17:10,600
When he shows us the man coming in
and feeding wine to the girl,

1011
01:17:10,600 --> 01:17:14,280
I don't know why, I get a sense
that he's critical of the man.

1012
01:17:14,280 --> 01:17:17,360
I don't get a sense
that he's there saying,

1013
01:17:17,360 --> 01:17:20,080
you know, he's there clapping his
hands, and saying, "Good on you."

1014
01:17:20,080 --> 01:17:22,600
You know, "Get a leg over."

1015
01:17:22,600 --> 01:17:24,520
I really feel
that's a critical thing.

1016
01:17:24,520 --> 01:17:26,520
I feel it's almost a moral allegory.

1017
01:17:26,520 --> 01:17:29,520
Don't do that. Don't let it happen.

1018
01:17:29,520 --> 01:17:33,560
I think he's showing us she thinks
she's in control, but she's not.

1019
01:17:44,520 --> 01:17:46,520
GREGOR: If you make the difference

1020
01:17:46,520 --> 01:17:49,880
between the virtuous
and the less virtuous women,

1021
01:17:49,880 --> 01:17:54,520
then, of course, also the less
virtuous depictions of society

1022
01:17:54,520 --> 01:17:59,160
were very attractive always,
not only in the work of Vermeer.

1023
01:17:59,160 --> 01:18:02,520
A strong idea that you show
something negative

1024
01:18:02,520 --> 01:18:08,080
and, at the same time, if you
recognise it, to do the opposite.

1025
01:18:38,520 --> 01:18:41,760
The question why he paints
such a lot of women

1026
01:18:41,760 --> 01:18:44,520
should be answered only by Vermeer.

1027
01:18:44,520 --> 01:18:47,520
I think I would love to ask it.

1028
01:18:47,520 --> 01:18:50,520
He had eight daughters
and three sons.

1029
01:18:50,520 --> 01:18:54,520
I think, of course, women were more
attractive for every collector.

1030
01:18:54,520 --> 01:18:57,520
But other artists like Ter Borch

1031
01:18:57,520 --> 01:18:59,520
who are making the same subjects

1032
01:18:59,520 --> 01:19:03,240
always show that also men
are entering the rooms,

1033
01:19:03,240 --> 01:19:05,880
are together with the women
and so on.

1034
01:19:05,880 --> 01:19:10,560
Depicting women is also
a sales factor. But we don't know.

1035
01:19:12,520 --> 01:19:14,520
Part of the appeal of the paintings

1036
01:19:14,520 --> 01:19:17,880
might be that they are about us.

1037
01:19:17,880 --> 01:19:21,120
So, what we see happening
in these paintings

1038
01:19:21,120 --> 01:19:25,800
is still about everyday activities
we still do today as well.

1039
01:19:25,800 --> 01:19:28,520
If it's pouring milk into a bowl,
reading a letter,

1040
01:19:28,520 --> 01:19:31,320
looking outside the window,
for example,

1041
01:19:31,320 --> 01:19:34,360
it's very tiny, little activities.

1042
01:20:27,520 --> 01:20:31,520
The Geographer is one
of the only five paintings

1043
01:20:31,520 --> 01:20:34,520
we know by Vermeer that's dated.

1044
01:20:34,520 --> 01:20:38,960
So the entire chronology
of Vermeer's work

1045
01:20:38,960 --> 01:20:42,680
we set around
these very few paintings,

1046
01:20:42,680 --> 01:20:44,920
of which we have the date.

1047
01:20:44,920 --> 01:20:48,960
What The Geographer and its pendant,

1048
01:20:48,960 --> 01:20:53,000
because it was painted with
another painting, The Astronomer.

1049
01:20:55,320 --> 01:20:59,520
What it tells us
is that in 17th-century houses,

1050
01:20:59,520 --> 01:21:03,040
the outside world
was brought inside.

1051
01:21:03,040 --> 01:21:08,600
And also Vermeer's interest
in mathematics,

1052
01:21:08,600 --> 01:21:10,240
which he must have had,

1053
01:21:10,240 --> 01:21:14,520
if you look at his interest
in optics and in perspective

1054
01:21:14,520 --> 01:21:17,520
because The Astronomer
and The Geographer,

1055
01:21:17,520 --> 01:21:20,800
those two subjects,
astronomy and geography,

1056
01:21:20,800 --> 01:21:25,960
were part of the lessons
you would get to learn math.

1057
01:21:25,960 --> 01:21:29,000
Globes, for example, you always see,

1058
01:21:29,000 --> 01:21:30,520
you see one in the background,

1059
01:21:30,520 --> 01:21:34,520
you see a globe of the skies,
of heaven,

1060
01:21:34,520 --> 01:21:36,520
and you see a globe of the world.

1061
01:21:36,520 --> 01:21:39,160
So, it was really by those objects,

1062
01:21:39,160 --> 01:21:41,520
and there's a map hanging
in the painting,

1063
01:21:41,520 --> 01:21:44,520
there's tools
that a geographer uses,

1064
01:21:44,520 --> 01:21:48,760
with these objects he brings
the world, the outside world, in.

1065
01:21:48,760 --> 01:21:50,640
But he also shows

1066
01:21:50,640 --> 01:21:57,120
the incredible expansion of
the Dutch empire around the world.

1067
01:21:58,800 --> 01:22:04,240
I wouldn't be surprised if these
two paintings were commissioned,

1068
01:22:04,240 --> 01:22:08,920
commissioned by somebody who was
really interested in these subjects.

1069
01:22:08,920 --> 01:22:12,920
Because they're one of the very few
paintings by Vermeer

1070
01:22:12,920 --> 01:22:15,080
that only depict a man.

1071
01:22:15,080 --> 01:22:18,720
And they're very specific subjects.

1072
01:22:18,720 --> 01:22:21,800
So, they wouldn't have been
to everybody's liking.

1073
01:23:08,760 --> 01:23:12,520
He's depicting
an allegory of Catholic faith.

1074
01:23:12,520 --> 01:23:17,320
The Catholic faith you have to do
with the woman in blue and white,

1075
01:23:17,320 --> 01:23:20,520
because it's the sky and heaven
depicted with these colours.

1076
01:23:20,520 --> 01:23:24,520
There must be a stone, which means
a cornerstone, which is Christ.

1077
01:23:24,520 --> 01:23:30,160
And this cornerstone has to destroy
the serpent of the devil,

1078
01:23:30,160 --> 01:23:32,520
which you can see on the painting.

1079
01:23:32,520 --> 01:23:36,840
The woman, the personification
of faith in the centre,

1080
01:23:36,840 --> 01:23:42,520
has to overcome the worldly,
the earthly things or the vices.

1081
01:23:42,520 --> 01:23:44,520
She's standing on the Earth,
the globe.

1082
01:23:44,520 --> 01:23:47,440
But Vermeer added
one important thing.

1083
01:23:47,440 --> 01:23:51,360
This woman is now looking
toward the ceiling of the room

1084
01:23:51,360 --> 01:23:54,520
where you have a glass orb hanging,

1085
01:23:54,520 --> 01:23:57,520
and on this glass orb
you see a lot of light reflections.

1086
01:23:57,520 --> 01:24:00,000
And this is a Jesuit symbol

1087
01:24:00,000 --> 01:24:04,520
and it means in Latin,
Capit Quod Non Capit,

1088
01:24:04,520 --> 01:24:07,080
"It grasps more than it can grasp."

1089
01:24:07,080 --> 01:24:08,800
Faith is always something

1090
01:24:08,800 --> 01:24:11,680
which is directed to something
greater than yourself.

1091
01:24:11,680 --> 01:24:15,400
So, this orb is reflecting
the whole universe, if you want.

1092
01:24:56,160 --> 01:25:00,080
Here is an allegory about faith.

1093
01:25:00,080 --> 01:25:02,520
Where virtuous choices
need to be made,

1094
01:25:02,520 --> 01:25:04,920
and a delicate balance
has to be struck

1095
01:25:04,920 --> 01:25:08,960
between earthly desire
and heavenly devotion.

1096
01:25:08,960 --> 01:25:13,040
A woman dressed in a blue jacket
with fur trim

1097
01:25:13,040 --> 01:25:18,520
stands serenely at a sturdy table
in the corner of a room.

1098
01:25:18,520 --> 01:25:22,520
The delicate scales
in her right hand are level,

1099
01:25:22,520 --> 01:25:25,520
suggesting a pensive moment
of reflection.

1100
01:25:25,520 --> 01:25:29,520
The table is partially covered
by a large blue cloth

1101
01:25:29,520 --> 01:25:31,520
and a clutter of boxes,

1102
01:25:31,520 --> 01:25:35,760
jewellery, pearls and gold.

1103
01:25:35,760 --> 01:25:42,520
Light enters from a high window
and softly illuminates the woman,

1104
01:25:42,520 --> 01:25:45,520
framed by a painting on the wall

1105
01:25:45,520 --> 01:25:48,560
depicting a scene
from The Last Judgement.

1106
01:25:50,920 --> 01:25:54,520
All focus
centres around the balance.

1107
01:25:54,520 --> 01:25:56,560
A perfect equilibrium.

1108
01:25:57,520 --> 01:26:00,520
To weigh and to judge
are parallel themes

1109
01:26:00,520 --> 01:26:05,520
in the writings of the Jesuit
Saint Ignatius of Loyola,

1110
01:26:05,520 --> 01:26:09,520
who states that the faithful
must examine their conscience

1111
01:26:09,520 --> 01:26:12,560
when weighing their sins
before judgement.

1112
01:26:14,520 --> 01:26:17,520
Earthly pleasures
such as gold and vice

1113
01:26:17,520 --> 01:26:22,520
must be balanced against virtue
and devotion to God,

1114
01:26:22,520 --> 01:26:26,960
to conduct our lives
with temperance and moderation.

1115
01:26:28,520 --> 01:26:33,520
The return to religious subjects
completes a circle for Vermeer

1116
01:26:33,520 --> 01:26:38,560
and seems to suggest
a period of self-reflection.

1117
01:26:47,520 --> 01:26:52,040
RACHEL: The Jesuits were a very
strong influence on Vermeer.

1118
01:26:52,040 --> 01:26:53,560
We know that.

1119
01:26:53,560 --> 01:26:55,880
And you have to remember
that a very powerful part

1120
01:26:55,880 --> 01:26:57,520
of the Jesuitical tradition

1121
01:26:57,520 --> 01:27:02,520
was this idea of one faith
in everyday life,

1122
01:27:02,520 --> 01:27:04,880
but also a profound part
of what they taught

1123
01:27:04,880 --> 01:27:08,520
was an Ignatian idea of something
called imaginative contemplation.

1124
01:27:08,520 --> 01:27:12,840
And you placed yourself there
and you imagined yourself there.

1125
01:27:12,840 --> 01:27:14,520
You know, Ignatius was preaching

1126
01:27:14,520 --> 01:27:17,040
that you imagined yourself there
with all your senses,

1127
01:27:17,040 --> 01:27:20,040
and that was part
of your prayerful life,

1128
01:27:20,040 --> 01:27:24,520
was that with all your senses you
placed yourself inside that scene,

1129
01:27:24,520 --> 01:27:26,200
imagined yourself as part of it.

1130
01:27:26,200 --> 01:27:31,520
And through that drew your
moral and spiritual guide to it.

1131
01:27:31,520 --> 01:27:35,320
Find one picture to stand
in front of and engage with,

1132
01:27:35,320 --> 01:27:37,520
and engage you with all five senses.

1133
01:27:37,520 --> 01:27:40,880
You know, you can taste
the tartness of the wine.

1134
01:27:40,880 --> 01:27:44,800
You can feel every texture.

1135
01:27:44,800 --> 01:27:49,640
You hear the sound of everything
in that room. You can hear it.

1136
01:27:49,640 --> 01:27:54,520
This deep religious connotation is
something that he imbibes so deeply

1137
01:27:54,520 --> 01:27:56,320
that he is giving us.

1138
01:27:56,320 --> 01:27:59,120
This is a deeply religious world,

1139
01:27:59,120 --> 01:28:02,160
but embedded
in a very ordinary domain,

1140
01:28:02,160 --> 01:28:04,000
a very ordinary realm.

1141
01:28:06,520 --> 01:28:09,760
TACO: Vermeer married
into a very rich family,

1142
01:28:09,760 --> 01:28:12,960
so there was money around.

1143
01:28:12,960 --> 01:28:18,080
But when he died in 1675,
in the cold December month,

1144
01:28:18,080 --> 01:28:22,440
he was actually very short of money.

1145
01:28:22,440 --> 01:28:25,880
His wife tells
that he dies frenetic,

1146
01:28:25,880 --> 01:28:27,960
because he's so worried about

1147
01:28:27,960 --> 01:28:30,920
the financial situation
of the family.

1148
01:28:30,920 --> 01:28:34,360
A lot of families in the Netherlands
went through this

1149
01:28:34,360 --> 01:28:37,480
because, after 1672,

1150
01:28:37,480 --> 01:28:40,520
when the Dutch were basically at war
with every country in Europe,

1151
01:28:40,520 --> 01:28:43,080
the economy collapsed.

1152
01:28:43,080 --> 01:28:44,880
And Vermeer suffered from that,

1153
01:28:44,880 --> 01:28:47,160
because he couldn't sell
his paintings any more,

1154
01:28:47,160 --> 01:28:49,560
because the market had collapsed.

1155
01:28:50,520 --> 01:28:53,360
PIETER: When you think about him
as a person, as a human being,

1156
01:28:53,360 --> 01:28:55,240
time ran out.

1157
01:28:55,240 --> 01:28:59,880
I mean, as a father of a huge family
of young children,

1158
01:28:59,880 --> 01:29:02,520
the youngest was one and a half
when he died.

1159
01:29:02,520 --> 01:29:05,280
When you think about his wife,
who was 44,

1160
01:29:05,280 --> 01:29:08,520
when she... she was a widow
and, all of a sudden,

1161
01:29:08,520 --> 01:29:12,040
she was confronted with all of these
debts she didn't know about.

1162
01:29:12,040 --> 01:29:17,520
So, time was crucial, not only
in the paintings by Vermeer

1163
01:29:17,520 --> 01:29:20,280
but also in what he is

1164
01:29:20,280 --> 01:29:24,280
as a human being
in the 17th century, I believe.

1165
01:29:26,520 --> 01:29:29,600
Vermeer is the most unformulaic
painter.

1166
01:29:29,600 --> 01:29:32,520
He knew that paint was a material,

1167
01:29:32,520 --> 01:29:37,000
a three-dimensional, malleable,
living material.

1168
01:29:37,000 --> 01:29:39,160
I mean, this is alchemy.

1169
01:29:39,160 --> 01:29:42,520
Look at the speck of light
on the earring

1170
01:29:42,520 --> 01:29:44,520
of the Girl with a Pearl Earring,

1171
01:29:44,520 --> 01:29:48,520
maybe one of the most famous
and looked at specks of light,

1172
01:29:48,520 --> 01:29:50,520
or most notable specks of light,

1173
01:29:50,520 --> 01:29:53,160
in the entirety
of the art historical canon.

1174
01:29:53,160 --> 01:29:56,280
You can't even see that
it's been done with a brushstroke.

1175
01:29:56,280 --> 01:30:00,040
It just sort of emerges by magic.

1176
01:30:00,040 --> 01:30:01,720
That's the magic of Vermeer.

1177
01:30:03,520 --> 01:30:09,040
TACO: Vermeer makes us realise
what it is to be human.

1178
01:30:09,040 --> 01:30:13,880
The simplicity of his paintings,
the intimacy,

1179
01:30:13,880 --> 01:30:19,120
the focus, brings us back to humans,

1180
01:30:19,120 --> 01:30:22,320
to human beings
in acting with each other,

1181
01:30:22,320 --> 01:30:27,160
in our solitary moments,
in a room, in a space.

1182
01:30:27,160 --> 01:30:30,960
And I think it's that human skill,

1183
01:30:30,960 --> 01:30:35,600
which is so often lost,
that Vermeer embodies.

1184
01:30:35,600 --> 01:30:40,560
He was an artist who created
from his imagination,

1185
01:30:40,560 --> 01:30:46,160
very carefully, these scenes
that make the clock stop ticking.

1186
01:30:46,160 --> 01:30:48,800
And that still fascinates us today.

1187
01:31:06,000 --> 01:31:08,240
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