El astronomy de jan vermeer biography
Self-portrait with bandaged ear and pipe...
The astronomer poemThe Astronomer, by Johannes Vermeer
The most intriguing link is that which lies latent in two paintings by Vermeer. In and , a man in his late thirties posed for the painter as he worked on two seemingly associated pictures with scientific themes.
These were Vermeer's only two paintings - at least the only two to survive - with solitary male figures as their protagonists; today the pictures are called The Astronomer and The Geographer, though the titles have varied in the past.
In they were auctioned as "A work depicting a Mathematical Artist, by Vander Meer"and "A ditto by the same".
The geographer vermeer
When they came up for sale again a few years later they were described as "An Astrologer" and "A repeat" - i.e. another one of the same profession - and were referred to as 'extra choice'. Later still, the 'Geographer' as he is now called was re-identified as '"an Architect" or "a Surveyor".
Obviously Vermeer intended the two men to be scholarly types. Although the "Astronomer" has no telesco