Used by all the masters from about 1300, including Leonardo da Vinci, Veronese, Rubens and Rembrandt, this pigment was lost in the early 18th century and wasn’t rediscovered until 1940.
Vermeer
The sound of music from Vermeer, Menzel, James Tissot, Hanna Pauli, Edouard Vuillard and others, from palaces to the homes of the middle class.
From a saint’s integrated office, through tables with quills and ink-pots, to beautifully crafted furniture for the home office.
Blue-on-white Delft tiles in paintings of Vermeer, and those in the 19th century who recreated period interiors, including Laura Alma-Tadema.
Curtains around 4-poster beds, revealing hidden opinions, framing a cameo landscape, showing time and place, and in a trompe l’oeil still life.
A grand castle kitchen, the element fire, Vermeer’s milkmaid, a witch’s kitchen for Faust, a rotund cardinal tasting the sauce, and in a humble apartment in London.
Examples of interiors by Gerard ter Borch, who liked open-ended narrative, Gabriël Metsu, Pieter de Hooch, and Jan Vermeer.
First popular in the Dutch Golden Age, paintings of interiors enjoyed success during the 19th century, when they were favourites of the avant garde.
Paintings of fields of buckwheat (not a cereal at all), sainfoin (ideal for horses), flax (oil paints and linen), and clover. And how the Dutch Golden Age changed its agriculture.
Carrying Caravaggio’s rotting fruit, bread from the cereal harvest, Vermeer’s milkmaid, fish, dirty washing, lambs, rocks and garlic.
The Eclectic Light Company 