Vermeer

Rating:
Summary: IF YOU'VE SEEN THE MET EXHIBIT, BUY THIS BOOK!!
Review: After reading "Girl With the Pearl Earring" and seeing the Metropolitan Museum's current 'Vermeer' exhibit, it's hard to stop there. One wants to know more about the man who only has 35 paintings in his catalog raisonnee. But reviewing the Met's exhibition catalog proved too dense with minutia to be readable, even for an Art History major in college. The Pascal Bonafoux "Vermeer" is a perfect companion to the exhibit. It provides large-format illustrations of all 35 paintings, and provides a "cutural context" to the paintings much the way the exhibit did. There are other artists' portraits and scenes used as a comparison to Vermeer's, also the way the exhibit provided. Details from the paintings are shown within the context of society at the time; for example the Postal System is explored in the text while illustrations of letters being read in the paintings are shown. Other topics include "The Beginning of the Scientific Method", "The Geographer" "The Concert" and "Woman Reading a Letter", among others. Written in 1992, Pascal Bonafoux forshadows the Met exhibit in including many of the same paintings which are key to understanding Vermeer. His chapter "Painting in Delft" includes the Carel Fabritius "View of Delft" which was painted to be looked at in a perspective box which is a highlight of the Met show. And even though Bonafoux includes a comparative Delft street scene by Pieter de Hooch, my two favorite Courtyard scenes by de Hooche are not reproduced in the book, so I am very happy I bought the postcards! Although there is no table of contents or index, this is a slim volume which includes a complete Table of Works. With only 35 paintings, this suffices. Also included is an extensive (though "select") bibliography, with an International collection of sources dating back to 1886, and including several standard references as well as periodical articles. Though this is not a detailed scholarly work, it is a FABULOUS book for the price. The only reason it did not earn 5 stars is that the illustrations, while good, are not outstanding. They are missing the whites which jump out of the paintings, and are captured in the only book I did buy at the exhibit, "Vermeer The Complete Works" which is printed on high quality glossy paper, and does justice to the paintings. But if you have seen the exhibit, you will want to own the Bonafoux "Vermeer". Out of print, it is worth the search, and a bargain at the price.