Product Description

In one painting, a Dutch military officer leans toward a laughing girl. In another, a woman at a window weighs pieces of silver. In a third, fruit spills from a porcelain bowl onto a Turkish carpet. The officer’s dashing hat is made of beaver fur, which European explorers got from Native Americans in exchange for weapons. Beaver pelts, in turn, financed the voyages of sailors seeking new routes to China. There – with silver mined in Peru – Europeans would purchase, by the thousands, the porcelain so often shown in Dutch paintings of this time. Vermeer’s haunting images hint at the stories behind these exquisitely rendered moments. As Timothy Brook shows us in Vermeer’s Hat, these pictures, which seem so intimate, actually open doors onto a rapidly expanding world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7771 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
'Brook takes you into the paintings in a way that can be spookily intimate' William Leith, Evening Standard --William Leith, Evening Standard

`An erudite, surprising book that finds traces of swashbuckling where you'd least expect' --Daily Telegraph

'Truly mesmerising.' --Lesley McDowell, Independent on Sunday

`Illuminating footnotes to Vermeer's miracles on canvas'
--Independent

Review
`How brilliantly Brook connects all with all' Guardian

Review
`Brook is a gifted storyteller... spellbinding... a treasure trove of astonishing pleasures' The Lady

Customer Reviews

Breathtaking
Simply, a beautiful and breathtaking book. Full of marvels and curiousities, each chapter opens out to show the wider maps and ideas we thought we knew about...small details from the paintings are peered closely at, and behind them the seventeenth-century world of travel and trade, narrated through human encounters and stories. He writes wonderfully well and with such clarity about often complex issues, effortlessly moving the focus and scene from place to place: so there's a lovely rhythm about the book as he paces the (frequent) surprises subtly and narrates them with a drole and deceptively easy style. I started to read the other day and was still sat there seven hours later, transfixed by it, slowing up the pace of reading, not wanting it to end.

A New Perspective
This book is an interesting new perspective in Vermeer studies, looking at the objects in his paintings from the point of view of the expanding trade networks of the 17th century. It is engagingly written and he wears his scholarship lightly.

I was disappointed the author did not investigate Vermeer's famous blue colour (anachronistically called "cobalt blue" in the book), since the ultramarine would itself have come from a complex trade network, and how it came to Delft would itself have made quite a story.

Marvellous
This is a wonderfully well written text that uses items featured in Vermeer's paintings to provide a highly informative and fascinating account of trade and exploration in the 17th Century (the Dutch Golden Age as it is often referred to). Unlike a couple of the other reviewers I felt it was worth every penny. The author is clearly extremely knowledgeable about the period and has a confident writing style. He provides some lucidly written accounts that focus on specific individuals and events. This approach works very well and provides you with some fascinating insights. If you are interested in this period then I strongly recommend this text to you.