Jan Vermeer and Maps

The Painter (self-portrait) and His Model as Klio

The Officer and Laughing Girl


Jan Vermeer was a 17th-century Dutch painter who painted mostly paintings depicting domestic scenes and seemingly confined spaces with great care and, in my opinion, dreamily touch. His works, rare and surprisingly unnoticed for centuries after his death, were rediscovered by the art critic Thoré Bürger in 1866; today, Vermeer is one of the most celebrated painters of the 17th-century Netherlands.

Interestingly, he also painted many maps, which are executed with surprising detail.

Because the maps in the paintings were created with their west direction facing up, they can be quite puzzling to the modern eye when initially viewed. Two of the maps present in the paintings shown portray the Netherlands, and when the maps are rotated so that their north direction is facing up, they are more recognizable. The map in the painting the Officer and Laughing Girl is rotated as an example.

According to the paper titled Vermeer's Maps: A New Digital Look in an Old Master's Mirror, maps or cartographs were expensive yet popular in the 17th century Netherlands because they were viewed as indications of humanistic learning and scholarly interest in geography. The particular map in the painting the Officer and Laughing Girl is identified to be made in 1620 by Balthasar Floriszoon van Berckenrode, and the title of the map reads, "NOVA ET ACCVRATA TOTIVS HOLLANDIAE WESTFRISIAEQ.(VE) TOPOGRAPHIA," meaning New and Accurate Description of the Topography of the Whole Holland and of West Friesland.

Vermeer lived when the Dutch traders dominated the European sea trade and brought great prosperity to the Netherlands. Probably he was keenly aware of how the maps contributed and played very important role for his nation.


Reference: Livieratos, Evangelos, and Koussoulakou, Alexandra. "Vermeer's Maps: A New Digital Look in an Old Master's Mirror." e-Perimetron, Vol 1, No. 2, Spring 2006

Art Nouveau

Casa Van Eetvelde, Brussels, Belgium, by Victor Horta

Hotel Tassel, Brussels, Belgium, by Victor Horta

Job by Alfons Mucha, 1897

29 Avenue Rapp, Paris, by Jules Lavirotte; Picture by photigule, Flickr ID

Art Nouveau was an influential artistic movement of the late 19th century that aimed to break away from the tradition of Europe's "academic" art, which emphasized proper standards, repetition of historic art forms, and correct tastes. Its name, a French term, literally means "new art," and is also known as Jugenstil, a German term for "youth style."

Art Nouveau is generally characterized by the use of flowing and curved lines, which are inspired from organic and floral forms. Because the artists of Art Nouveau shunned using clichés of elements and styles that were already created in the past, including those constituting classicism, they instead explored "uncluttered" forms that are found in nature in order to create "new art."

Another very interesting characteristic of the Art Nouveau movement is that it refused to distinguish between lower, "applied" art and higher, "free" art. From decorative arts, such as ordinary household utensils, furniture, silverware, jewelry, to architecture and visual arts, the artists of Art Nouveau wanted to equally control, give attention, and exquisitely design all of them. Art is to permeate and influence a way of life.


The Writing in Progress...

References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau
http://www.nga.gov/feature/nouveau/exhibit_intro.shtm

The RMS Titanic

Exactly ninety-seven years ago from today, on April 15th, 1912, the famous luxury ocean liner Titanic met its tragic fate and sank in the middle of Atlantic Ocean.

The following is a sad yet deeply-touching account of how one father, Arthur West, gave a flask of milk for his wife Ada and his daughters, 5-year-old Constance and 10-month-old Barbara, before returning and sharing a same fate as the doomed ship. The story was revealed after Barbara, aged 96, died in 2007.

Here are Mrs. West's accounts in her letters:

'My dear people, here's the end of my first awful week without my dear old boy.

'The experiences I have been through with all the other poor creatures have been enough for two life times.

'We were amongst the first to leave the ship. Arthur placed life belts upon the children then carried them onto the boat deck.

'After seeing us safely into the lifeboat Arthur returned to the cabin for a thermos of hot milk and finding the lifeboat let down he reached it by means of a rope, gave the flask to me, and, with a farewell returned to the deck of the ship.'

'There were men in our boat who had concealed themselves under the ladies skirts and had to be asked to stop lighting cigarettes as there was a danger of the dresses becoming ignited.'

'It was only when I saw the ship sink and heard the awful cries and groans from the poor drowning creatures that I felt the least bit of fear as to his safety.

'There was no suggestion of going back to the ship when she sank and drowning people was heard.

'The steward who seemed to be in charge called out 'Pull up men - they're singing in the other boats. Give them a shout!'

'The noise they made drowned all the cries and we gradually drew away from the scene of the wreck and did not turn back until some time after the Carpathia had appeared.'


Just four days before the tragedy, Auther West wrote a letter on board the Titanic. In his letter he writes:

'I hope we have a calm trip....till we reach our journeys end.'

I can only admire Arthur West's courage to part with his family and meet his death. He must have known that the milk flask is the last present that he can give.


So many things have changed since then...

Luther Whiting Mason and the Historic Knabe Piano of Japan

(Picture by the University Art Museum- Tokyo University of the Arts
東京芸術大学大学美術館)

This historic Knabe upright piano (serial number 19750; made in 1879) was brought to Meiji-era Japan when Luther Whiting Mason, an American music educator, was invited by the Japanese Ministry of Education and came from Boston to Tokyo in 1880.

Luther Whiting Mason, born on April 3rd, 1818 and died on July 14th, 1896, was recommended by his former pupil, Shuji Izawa (伊澤修二). At the time, the Japanese government pursued rapid modernization programs and was looking for a foreign advisor in order to introduce Western music to Japan's education curriculum.

Mason stayed in Tokyo for two years and helped to create the Tokyo Ongaku Gako (東京音楽学校), which now is a part of the Tokyo University of the Arts. When he left Japan in 1882, Mason gave the piano to a woman who helped him, Sen Nakamura (中村専), who later married Hideo Takamine (高嶺秀夫). Her daughter, Keiko Takamine (敬子高嶺), married and left her piano to her son, Kuniyasu Tsuchida (土田国保), who then left it to his son, Eizaburo Tsuchida (土田栄三郎), who, coincidently, is now a professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts. Because it was a family heirloom, the piano never suffered a serious damage during its long life.

Japan's Meiji-era is quite fascinating, in part, because during this period many unique and decisive cultural exchanges between the traditional yet adaptive East nation and the West had occurred. Korea and China were not as open as Japan about adapting the cultures of the West during this time, including piano performance. Still, many contemporary Japanese must have been puzzled and awed by Mason's Knabe piano.

Probably one of the roots of today's East Asian piano manufacturers and pianists can be traced to this period in time.

I am happy to note that my piano and Mason's piano are made by Knabe.

Reference: http://www.jpta.org/top/topix/fair2001/index3.html