LIVE LECTURE (ALSO AVAILABLE ONLINE THROUGH ZOOM)

Vermeer and the Art of Love --book talk and signing
Aneta Georgievska Shine, professor of art history, University of Maryland

What sets Vermeer apart is his fine balancing between various possible ways of seeing the world. Though he often includes clearly symbolic objects, such as a mirror or a map, or presents potentially moralizing ‘situations’ such as a young lady talking alone with a gentleman, he always reminds us that nothing is as simple as it may first appear. Not every woman beholding herself in a mirror stands for vanity, nor is a girl asleep necessarily a symbol of moral imperfection. His refusal to lock ‘meanings’, combined with his attention to detail, as well as his infinitesimal adjustments of optical realities for the sake of pictorial harmonies, slows us down even in front of something we have seen countless times. And through this slowing-down we grasp what may be the most important aspect of his creative process: that lover-like absorption with the object of representation.

$15 door fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)