Portrayals of scientists were a favourite topic in 17th-century Dutch painting and Vermeer’s oeuvre includes both this astronomer and the slightly later The Geographer. Both are believed to portray the same man, possibly Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. A 2017 study indicated that the canvas for the two works came from the same bolt of material, confirming their close relationship.
The astronomer’s profession is shown by the celestial globe (version by Jodocus Hondius) and the book on the table, the 1621 edition of Adriaan Metius’s Institutiones Astronomicae Geographicae. Symbolically, the volume is open to Book III, a section advising the astronomer to seek “inspiration from God” and the painting on the wall shows the Finding of Moses—Moses may represent knowledge and science (“learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians”).
Artist: Johannes Vermeer
Dimensions: 51 × 45 cm
Location: Louvre Museum, France since 1983
Created: 1668
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Period : Dutch Golden Age
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.