The New Science
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Vermeer
The Astronomer
c. 1668
It has proved possible to identify the book that lies open in front
of this mystically-clad astronomer. It is by Adriaen Metius and is
called
The Exploration and Observation of the Stars. The globe was
made by Jodocus Hondius.
The Astronomer, was among Vermeer's late works, and again took the theme of dialogue between
the mind, eyes, and hands, reinforced by objects - the book,
telescope, and celestial sphere. The table carpet is the similar to
that in The Lacemaker. This subject is a variation on a theme that
had already been used in many genre paintings following the
foundation of the Dutch East India Company in 1602. Dutch artists
mirrored the subsequent developments in the science and technology
of navigation with what were essentially portraits of books,
instruments, and rooms, as well as the men who used them. What
distinguished Vermeer from his contemporaries was his genius for
handling his subjects with affectionate detachment, keeping the
conceptual structure of the picture hidden beneath the obvious
realism. Vermeer was active at a time when Baruch Spinoza (1632-77),
the cerebral jewish philosopher, was rejecting the personal God of
Christians and Jews in favour of a God of rational order and
structure, to whom man offered an intimate, silent, intellectual
love which constituted true freedom. An equivalent depth of thought
seems to be present in Vermeer's meditations, with their inner
light, scientific approach, and silent and ordered view of reality.
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Geography and Astronomy
Only three of Vermeer's works can be dated and authenticated precisely; one of
them, the 1668 painting The Astronomer, now hangs in the Louvre. Due to
the similar motif and size, it is safe to assume that this painting was
conceived as a counterpart to the Frankfurt painting The Geographer.
Both paintings depict an academic, with long hair that is tucked behind his
ears, and wearing a robe-like garment that reached to the floor and was not
normal everyday attire. This gave these figures an air of mystery, as if they
belonged to the chosen few. They are going about their business behind closed
doors. The astronomer is not using a telescope, but is at his desk, checking
descriptions in an open book against the constellations on his celestial globe.
He is using his right hand to hold the globe in a precise position, and we can
make out the constellations of the Great Bear (on the left), the Dragon and
Hercules (centre), and Lyra (on the right).
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Jan Verkolje
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, undated Antoni van
Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) was born in the same year as Vermeer. He
was a wealthy cloth merchant, and he experimented with a variety
of optical instruments, in particular with the 247 microscopes
that he built himself. His discoveries include spermatozoa and
bacteria. He was in close contact with the Royal Society in
London, and kept them informed of the results of his research.
After Vermeer's death, he was appointed trustee of his estate. |
Hard Times
A few months after Vermeer's death, his widow was officially
declared bankrupt. This is the comment which Antoni van
Leeuwenhock, in his capacity as trustee, added to the
Delft annals. |
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Jodocus Hondius
Celestial Globe, 1618
This is the globe which Vermeer included in
his painting The Astronomer. |
Vermeer
The Astronomer (detail)
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Vermeer
The Geographer (detail) |
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James Welu has established that the globe was made by Jodocus
Hondius,
and he has even been able to identify the book. It was written by Adriaen Metius
and its title is The Exploration and Observation of the Stars. Behind the
billowing table carpet it is possible to make out an astrolabe that has been
laid down flat; this was an instrument of greatest importance to both astronomy
and navigation, as it made it possible to measure angles and ascertain one's
position.
The geographer is using compasses to check distances on cartographic plans, the
precise details of which cannot be made out. He pauses as he does so, and looks
thoughtfully to the window; the light shining through it lights up his face, a
sign of inspiration.
Vermeer painted both pictures at a time when a radical change of paradigm was
taking place in science. The teachings of conservative humanists such as
Sebastian Brant continued up to the middle of the 17th century. They taught that
it would be presumptuous, and an improper interference in the divine scheme of
things, to attempt to discover the nature of the stars and the history, size and
composition of the Earth. They imposed a ban on curiositas, scientific inquiry,
and on any science based on experience and empirical research. In Brant's Ship
of Fools, in the chapter headed "Of the Discovery of all Countries",24 it says
that classical scientists such as Archimedes and Pliny were careful not to give
away their discoveries, or to delve too deeply into the way these were
interrelated.
The Astronomer was painted as Louis XIV was building an observatory in Paris
(1667-72). In 1668, a young Isaac Newton improved on the design of the
reflecting telescope which James Gregory had developed in 1663. A decade
previously, Christian Huygens of The Hague had discovered Saturn's sixth
satellite with his telescopes. Astronomical activities such as these were of
great practical importance for navigation, and in the broadest sense they served
(maritime) trade.
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Vermeer
The Astronomer (detail)
Painting within a painting
Vermeer repeatedly gives us hints as to how we should interpret his
paintings.
For instance, the cupid holding the playing card in this painting within
a painting raises doubts as to the virginity of the woman at the virginal.
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Such practical considerations and empirical approaches seem to
have played little part in Vermeer's astronomer picture. It is
typical enough that this astronomer should be working indoors,
without looking through the window at the heavens as Gerard Dou's
Astronomer does. This suggests that he could be devoting himself
to the older, non-empirical science of astrology, or, in other
words, that he is drawing up a horoscope. The transition from
astrology to astronomy was still in progress at this time. It is
known that astronomers such as Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe, who
were dedicated empiricists, were still practising astrologists. The
moment of birth, the stars at nativity, are of key relevance to the
forecasting of the future by means of a horoscope; and the concern
of Vermeer's painting with this fact is suggested by the picture on
the wall, which shows the finding of the infant Moses (Exodus 2,
1-10). The birth of Moses was considered to be a prefiguration of
the birth of Christ; Christian teaching therefore perceived a
connection between the two, a link grounded in cosmology. The
persecution of the children of Israel, including Moses, who was
famously left amid the rushes, was compared with the Holy Family's
flight to Egypt from Herod's Massacre of the Innocents at Bethlehem.
James Welu, who has inferred the likeliest passage in the work by
Adriaen Metius open in front of the astronomer, contends that Metius'
accounts of the earliest astronomers were taken by Vermeer to apply
to Moses, since the latter (according to Acts 7, 22) was supposedly
learned in the wisdom of Egypt, which would have meant astronomy in
particular. The question remains, however, why Vermeer should have
chosen this specific episode in the story of Moses, which relates in
no way to any ability he may have had as an astronomer. As we have
seen, Vermeer used this picture of the finding of Moses in a
different context, in specific allusion to the circumstances of
Moses' birth, rather than merely to his person.
Vermeer's Astronomer does not make any unambiguous statement on its
scientific content. Astrology is not definitely rejected, but
neither does the picture argue the case for the new science of
astronomy. The geographer is perhaps working more within the terms
of our modern understanding of the exact sciences, since the
nautical chart on the wall (Willem Jansz. Blaeu's sea chart of
Europe, "PASCAARTE/van alle de Zecusten van/EVROPA"; size of the
original 66 x 88 cm), in contrast to the Moses painting, points not
to spiritual dimensions but to the practical uses of science in
describing the world for the purposes of navigation. In the late
1660s, questions of maritime trade were much on the Dutch nation's
mind. Admiral de Ruyter had brought the Second Anglo-Dutch War
(1665-67) to a victorious conclusion; this war was fought over
supremacy in the North Sea, over fishing rights, and to protect the
Dutch merchant fleet, which had been endangered by protective
measures that the English government had taken in favour of its own
merchants.
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Vermeer
The Geographer
c. 1668-69
With the exception of The Procuress, The Geographer
and The Astronomer are the only dated works of Vermeer's.
These two paintings
were produced as a pair, and remained together until 1729.
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Vermeer
The Geographer (detail)
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Vermeer
The Geographer (detail)
Maps of the Netherlands
Vermeer's love of maps becomes apparent in the way he decorates his
interiors. The role of maps was twofold: on the one hand, they
indicated wealth (in the seventeenth century, maps were an expensive
luxury); on the other hand, they refer to a good level of education.
Cartography was still a new science, but was beginning to be held in
high regard.
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