Eye of the Beholder: Johannes Vermeer, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, and the Reinvention of Seeing by Laura J. Snyder

Author:Laura J. Snyder [Snyder, Laura J.]
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784970239
Publisher: Perseus Books, LLC
Published: 2015-05-29T16:00:00+00:00

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In May of 1672, a month before the riots in Delft against the Perpetual Edict, Vermeer was part of a delegation that traveled to The Hague in order to appraise a collection of disputed Italian paintings to determine whether they were real or copies. Besides Vermeer, serving his second term as headman of the Guild of St. Luke’s, the delegation included two other headmen from the guild, and other painters, including Willem van Aelst. One of the artists, Johannes Jordaens, had spent many years in Italy, whereas others, including Vermeer, had never (as far as we know) left the Netherlands.

In 1671 Amsterdam’s leading art dealer, Gerrit Uylenburgh, had sold twelve pictures and some sculptures from the famous collection of Gerard Reynit to Friedrich Wilhelm, the Great Elector of Brandenburg. Gerrit was the son of Hendrik Uylenburgh, in whose studio Rembrandt had worked, and whose niece Saskia—Gerrit’s cousin—had married Rembrandt.

Friedrich Wilhelm was the grandson of the Brandenburg elector who had been implicated in the counterfeiting scheme undertaken by Vermeer’s grandfather and uncle in 1619; one wonders whether Vermeer thought it ironic that he was now being asked to determine whether paintings bought by him were authentic or “counterfeit.” These pictures were supposedly the works of sixteenth-century Italian masters, including five by Titian, a Giorgione, a Raphael, and a Michelangelo. At that time Italian paintings were considered the pinnacle of art; only the wealthiest burghers could afford to collect them. Most Italian paintings in the Dutch Republic were in Amsterdam, and some were in The Hague—only very few were in Delft. (Of course, there was much more trade in Italian paintings in the Southern Netherlands, which, being a colony of Spain, had a closer connection to Catholic Italy. Titian, for instance, had worked for the king of Spain.) Because of the rarity of Italian master paintings in the north, Uylenburgh had asked for a fantastic sum. One picture, supposedly a Venus and Cupid by Michelangelo, was priced at an incredible 875 guilders (about $12,625 today). Another, a portrait of Giorgione by Titian, was assessed at 650 guilders ($9,380).

Uylenburgh’s problems began when the still-life painter Hendrik de Fromantiou, acting as the agent for Friedrich Wilhelm, had declared that the collection, with one possible exception, was made up of “bad copies and trash.” Affronted, the Great Elector returned the paintings to Amsterdam, but Uylenburgh refused to take them back. Fromantiou began soliciting depositions from painters who claimed the pictures were forgeries, but other artists supported Uylenburgh’s claim. Both sides sought painters who had spent time in Italy and would have had more experience viewing Italian pictures than they could have had in the Dutch Republic. The painters Wilhelm Doudijns and Carel Dujardin went through the list of paintings one by one, declaring that most were copies or imitations of the masters to whom they were attributed. Both painters had had extended stays in Italy; Dujardin had studied in Italy, and Doudijns had been a member of the Bentvueghels, a group of Dutch artists in Rome, for twelve years.

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