Book of the Month February 2023: Vermeer and the Art of Love

February is the month of VERMEER!
Not only is Aneta Georgievska-Shine's book Vermeer and the Art of Love our BOOK OF THE MONTH (with 20% off with code MONTH20), but the Rijksmuseum is hosting the largest Vermeer show in history, starting 10th February!
 
 
  
VERMEER AND THE ART OF LOVE is the first book to explore the theme of love in Vermeer's oeuvre, not merely in a romantic sense but also as a spiritual attitude towards the visible world.  Georgievska-Shine uncovers the ways in which Vermeer challenges the dichotomies between 'good' and 'bad' love, the sensual and the spiritual, placing him within the context of his contemporaries to give the reader a fascinating insight into his unique understanding and interpretation of the subject.
 
 
 
Read about the latest Vermeer developments, from the New York Times: A Vermeer? It’s Actually an Imitator, National Gallery of Art Reveals and Artnet News: What Is Vermeer’s Beloved ‘Milkmaid’ Hiding? Scholars Have Used New X-Ray Technology to Find the Secrets Beneath Its Surface.
 
  
You can also read a blogpost by the author HERE
 
Why write a book about Vermeer and the “art of love”? Love is central to his oeuvre, and mentioned in almost every publication on this artist, be it a monograph or a museum catalogue. And yet, it has never been explored as a theme in its many variations.

When we think about love in Vermeer, we often imagine a view into an interior with a solitary young woman reading a letter from a distant beloved or playing a musical instrument in front of a rapt admirer. Many of his contemporaries painted similar scenes. Indeed, love was pervasive in the Dutch visual culture, as I show in the introductory overview of the various sub-genres of paintings on this theme. Like all other Dutch painters of his time, Vermeer was influenced by cultural conventions. Nonetheless, unlike his peers whose paintings reflect Petrarchan ideals about love, for instance, he is exceptional in his ability to convey an authentic human experience behind those conventions....
READ ON
 
  
 
   
Order your copy with 20% off by using code MONTH20 at checkout!