"Researchers in Amsterdam have pinpointed the long-debated location depicted in Vermeer’s painting “The Little Street” using sources from 17th-century records to Google Maps, the Rijksmuseum has announced. The exact address of the site of the quaint scene is in the artist’s hometown Delft, on present-day Vlamingstraat 40–42, a street that runs along one of the area’s canals, although a previous and extensive study had claimed it as Nieuwe Langendijk 22–26. The painting, which dates to around 1658, hangs in the Rijksmuseum, which today opened an exhibition around the discovery."More here
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I'm having a hard time grasping what difference it makes where it was. Interesting in passing, as this sort of trivia always is, but the hyperbole, "...both for the way that we look at this one painting by Vermeer and for our image of Vermeer as an artist."
ReplyDeleteReally, the painting is good or it is not. Would the museum throw it out if the the subject were not owned by an Aunt who sold tripe? I guess it's a eureka moment for denizens of the museums research team in the dusty basement... they don't get out much.
This is the stuff that excites art historians.
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