There are ten years left to celebrate the fourth centenary of his birth and three to commemorate the 350th anniversary of his death, but the Netherlands did not want to wait for any specific date to organize the largest exhibition ever seen of one of its geniuses, Johannes Vermeer.
The painter, who never left his native Delft, stands out not only for the quality of his work, but also for his limited production. Only 37 paintings are preserved and 28 of them will be part of the exhibition that the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam will open on February 10 of next year and whose tickets can already be purchased for 20 euros. The museum sells the occasion as a unique opportunity that will not be repeated for decades, not even for the painter's anniversaries.
Until the appointed date arrives, the institution colors the appointment with some brushstrokes that help keep the expectation alive. The most notable so far has been the announcement of the names of the selected squads, as if it were the expected squad list for the World Cup.
There will be no shortage of those who play at home, such as the famous The Milkmaid, Woman Reading a Letter or The Alley that already hang on the walls of the Dutch art gallery. Nor those that will travel with the label of dubious authorship, as is the case of Girl with a flute (National Gallery of Art in Washington); Santa Práxedes (National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo); o Young woman seated before the virginal (National Gallery, London), although the inclusion of the three works is already a good declaration of intent.
However, the pearl of the exhibition will undoubtedly be the young woman who wears precisely this jewel, from the neighboring Mauritshuis in The Hague. A pearl that doesn't really exist. The last scientific study that the museum itself published a couple of years ago determined that it would be a lucky optical illusion. Considered The Mona Lisa of the North, like Leonardo da Vinci's, Vermeer's most famous work remains shrouded in mystery. Who is the enigmatic girl? Did it exist or is it an example of the tronie genre, a pictorial trend of the time that artists used to show their talent by capturing an anonymous face? Why did he portray her with a turban? What did her half-open lips mean?
The fascination aroused by the enigmatic young woman has not faded over time. And if not, tell the also mysterious Banksy, who this week made headlines in Barcelona with the inauguration of a museum named after him in the old Espai Trafalgar with reproductions of his creations. In a way, this is what he also did in 2014 in Bristol, putting Vermeer's masterpiece on a huge wall. And no pearl six years before the experts took it away. In its place, as pending, appears the yellowish device of the building's alarm. And it is that Banksy's look is always ahead.
