|
( The Astronomer (painting))
The Astronomer is a painting finished about 1668 by the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. It is oil on canvas, 51cm x 45 cm, and is on display at the Louvre, Paris.[1] Portrayals of scientists were a favourite topic in 17th century Dutch painting[1] and Vermeer oeuvre includes both this astronomer and the slightly later The Geographer. Both are believed to portray the same man,[2][3][4] possibly Anton van Leeuwenhoek. [5] The astronomer's profession is shown by the celestial globe (version by Jodocus Hondius) and the book on the table, Metius's Institutiones Astronomicae Geographicae[2][3][4]. 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"[6]). The painting once hung in the home of Edouard de Rothschild, from which it was seized 1940 by the Nazi Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg für die Besetzten Gebiete after the German invasion of France. A small swastika was stamped on the back in black ink. The painting was returned to the Rothschilds after the war, and was donated to the Louvre in 1982. [7]
| 
