Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World [S0028]

2009 PB in nice clean condition. In one painting, a military officer in a Dutch sitting room flirts with a laughing girl. In another, a woman at a window weighs pieces of silver. Vermeer's paintings haunt us with their beauty and mystery--what stories lay behind these stunningly rendered moments? As Timothy Brook shows us, these pictures, which seem so intimate, actually offer a remarkable view of a rapidly expanding world. The dashing officer's hat is of beaver fur from Canada, while the pieces of silver, mined in Peru, might be used to purchase the Chinese porcelain seen in other Vermeer paintings. Moving outward from Vermeer's studio, Brook traces the web of trade that was spreading across the globe in the seventeenth century. The wharves of Holland, wrote a French visitor, were "an inventory of the possible." Vermeer's Hat shows just how rich this inventory was, and how the urge to acquire such things was refashioning the world more powerfully than we have yet understood.

From Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Timothy Brook brings a fascinating perspective on Vermeer's world by using his works of art as portals back to the 17th century in how economic changes and empire-building linked Delft (Vermeer's hometown in the Netherlands) to distant China and the Americas. It is a masterful study that I couldn't put down. For fans of art, you can learn quite a lot about history and vice versa."; "By the 17th century, England and Holland had joined Portugal and Spain in sending fleets of ships around Africa for, as one historian (Vincent Cronin) noted, "slaves and salvation, gain and grace." Nowhere is this century more colorfully told than by Timothy Brook. By focusing on a handful of Vermeer's paintings, Brook opens up a vast and delightful treasure trove of tales grounded in 17th century history. As a historian of China, Brook uses China and Asia as his focal point, but the lessons of 'looking' and 'seeing' by studying Vermeer's works, is, as the Wall Street Journal review summed it up "A book that teaches us how to see," and truer words were never said. I might also add, and 'how to love history'. This is one of the richest and most engaging books I have found on 17th century global history. Every teacher of high school European or Asian history or an introduction to art, should begin with this book as it instantly seduces readers into the succulent worlds of both."; "This was a very interesting book but not what I had expected. In each chapter the author, a professor of Chinese history, takes one of Vermeer's paintings to help understand how the world was rapidly developing into a global trade network. Subjects include Chinese export porcelain, smoking and the opium trade, and the monetization of silver after Spain started mining in South America. If you are looking for a book about art of that era, this is probably not the book for you. But it gave me a much better understanding of the evolution of global trade."