Johannes Vermeer, the master of the hidden messages

Dutch painter
Johannes Vermeer – the mysterious master of the hidden messages

by Annette Berger
November 12, 2021, 2:23 pm

Johannes Vermeer lived a little over 300 years ago in the Netherlands during the “Golden Age”, a phase of history in which the small country on the North Sea was rich and a world power. Back then, art treasures were created there that still fascinate people today, including Vermeer’s paintings.

Overall – and probably much to the displeasure of art lovers around the world – Vermeer didn’t leave many pictures behind. There should be a total of 37. In the meantime, other works have been ascribed to this painter. But in the meantime research has found that none of these were real Vermeers.

Even so, science still has its hands full with this Baroque painter, who is considered a master at incorporating (hidden) messages into his paintings.

You really have to read a Vermeer: ​​there are symbols or figures that he has worked into his works as if they were decoration – sometimes a plate, sometimes a book or a fat angel figure. But all of these “decoration” pieces stand for something: for example for wealth, loyalty, godliness, a virtuous or a vicious life. Contemporaries probably easily recognized the many allusions, there were signs and symbols that were partly in common use. Today’s viewers of Vermeer paintings first have to approach this visual language in order to be able to “read” the works properly.

There is currently an opportunity to do so in Dresden, where the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister is presenting the largest Vermeer show to date that, according to the museum, has ever taken place in Germany. And there in Saxony several of his pictures were restored in millimeter work over the years – which among other things brought even more of these typical Vermeer messages to light.

The life of Johannes Vermeer remains largely in the dark to this day

Perhaps contributing to the painter’s aura is the fact that very little is known about his life itself, not even the date of birth. What is certain is that he was baptized on October 31, 1632 in Delft. He was also to be buried in the Dutch city. The date of death is also unknown, but the day of the funeral, December 15, 1675. Jan Vermeer, as he is also known, was 43 years old.

He created history paintings and cityscapes – and also the even more famous portraits of women, such as “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” or the “Letter Reader at the Open Window” – the latter painting is the star of the exhibition in Dresden. Because the Dresden restorers brought to light elements of the picture that had been unknown for decades because they had been painted over by strangers.

How Vermeer was trained to be a painter is also not well-known. However, for a while he was able to live well from his pictures and take care of his child-friendly family, but later the Vermeers fell into a debt trap. When he died, his wife was completely in debt and had to forego the inheritance in favor of the creditors.

Google uses a “Vermeer trick” on its Doodle

He left the world with pictures in which there is still something new to discover. Maybe that’s why Google dedicated a doodle to Johannes Vermeer on November 12th. The occasion is the memory of an exhibition with 21 paintings by the painter, which opened on the same day in 1995 in Washington. A large number – after all, almost two thirds of the known complete works.

And the designers of the Google Doodle also use a Vermeer trick: At first glance, the graphic simply shows three pictures by the painter. If you take a closer look, the “Google” letters are incorporated into the paintings. Perhaps in 300 years people will no longer recognize at first glance what a “G” or “O” is – but today’s “contemporaries” understand this allusion immediately.

Sources: Old Masters Picture Gallery in Dresdenn, “Google Watch Blog“

In the video from our archive from June 2021, see the story of two world-famous paintings that were stolen and finally rediscovered.