Comments on: You have ten seconds to find the Vermeer below http://flyingfox.jonathanjanson.com/2008/11/18/art-under-seige-you-have-ten-seconds-to-find-the-vermeer-below/ Words from the Essential Vermeer.com Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:08:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: angie duruma http://flyingfox.jonathanjanson.com/2008/11/18/art-under-seige-you-have-ten-seconds-to-find-the-vermeer-below/comment-page-1/#comment-3117 angie duruma Sat, 28 Feb 2009 15:54:17 +0000 http://flyingfox.jonathanjanson.com/?p=214#comment-3117 I just found your blog on google. I really liked it and now I will share it with my friends. I just found your blog on google. I really liked it and now I will share it with my friends.

]]> By: ARech http://flyingfox.jonathanjanson.com/2008/11/18/art-under-seige-you-have-ten-seconds-to-find-the-vermeer-below/comment-page-1/#comment-31 ARech Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:30:12 +0000 http://flyingfox.jonathanjanson.com/?p=214#comment-31 Viewing paintings in churches (or chapels) may not always be very comfortable, neither from space nor from lighting conditions. But viewing them in that original surrounding to which they were destined certainly adds considerably to our understanding of the period of their origin as well as to their specific meaning. Besides, we know today, that painters sometimes arranged the lighting of their composition according to the lighting conditions of the respective room or other surrounding the painting was intended for, as, for example, is probably the case with Vermeer's 'Guitar Player'. I could imagine that Caravaggio's three 'St. Matthew' paintings in the Contarelli Chapel of San Luigi dei Francesi would look quite different, not to say: strange in the well-lit, comfortable surrounding of a museum. I guess they would lack some of their breathtaking atmosphere. The instant increase of overcrowded rooms even at major exhibitions and the thoughtless up to disrespectful behavior of a number of visitors will remain a serious problem, even for the security of the paintings, as long as exhibitions will be staged. To reduce these problems at least, it is the major task of the museum's management to decree stricter rules for visits and get the visitors informed of these rules. The Mauritshuis in The Hague, for instance, did so, as the situation with the digital and cell phone armies became intolerable. Since autumn 2007 any photographing is strictly forbidden now, and the size of the bags carried with are reduced to the size of a normal handbag. Together with the ticket each visitor gets a sheet with a detailed list of the new, restricted rules. Well, only few will read them, but the guards can point to them at least, when a visitor doesn't take care. The viewing situation now has become far more comfortable, far more quiet, and certainly more secure. Perhaps the MET-officials should spend some thoughts and do as well? But certainly not easy in the Land of (nearly unlimited) Freedom... As with regards to some quiet moments with a Vermeer or another precious painting: it is indeed still possible. I have developed my own strategy which, until now, worked quite well. Detailed information in advance about the museum's locality and the collection it offers or the special exhibition to be visited, is of vital advantage and should be the norm today. An important point is to try and be the first in the museum, accepting the circumstance of waiting one or half an hour before the doors get open. But then one has c. one hour for a first, more or less calm, private study, before the mass of tourist-groups will capture the rooms. With this and some other little 'tricks' I have always been quite successful and had quite a lot of very moving, private moments with the Vermeers and even with Rembrandt's overwhelming portrait of Jan Six, for the first time on public display in the recent 'Dutch Portraits'-exhibition in Mauritshuis (naturally, causing long rows of visitors waiting patiently to get in...). AR Viewing paintings in churches (or chapels) may not always be very comfortable, neither from space nor from lighting conditions. But viewing them in that original surrounding to which they were destined certainly adds considerably to our understanding of the period of their origin as well as to their specific meaning. Besides, we know today, that painters sometimes arranged the lighting of their composition according to the lighting conditions of the respective room or other surrounding the painting was intended for, as, for example, is probably the case with Vermeer’s ‘Guitar Player’. I could imagine that Caravaggio’s three ‘St. Matthew’ paintings in the Contarelli Chapel of San Luigi dei Francesi would look quite different, not to say: strange in the well-lit, comfortable surrounding of a museum. I guess they would lack some of their breathtaking atmosphere.

The instant increase of overcrowded rooms even at major exhibitions and the thoughtless up to disrespectful behavior of a number of visitors will remain a serious problem, even for the security of the paintings, as long as exhibitions will be staged. To reduce these problems at least, it is the major task of the museum’s management to decree stricter rules for visits and get the visitors informed of these rules. The Mauritshuis in The Hague, for instance, did so, as the situation with the digital and cell phone armies became intolerable. Since autumn 2007 any photographing is strictly forbidden now, and the size of the bags carried with are reduced to the size of a normal handbag. Together with the ticket each visitor gets a sheet with a detailed list of the new, restricted rules. Well, only few will read them, but the guards can point to them at least, when a visitor doesn’t take care. The viewing situation now has become far more comfortable, far more quiet, and certainly more secure. Perhaps the MET-officials should spend some thoughts and do as well? But certainly not easy in the Land of (nearly unlimited) Freedom…

As with regards to some quiet moments with a Vermeer or another precious painting: it is indeed still possible. I have developed my own strategy which, until now, worked quite well. Detailed information in advance about the museum’s locality and the collection it offers or the special exhibition to be visited, is of vital advantage and should be the norm today.
An important point is to try and be the first in the museum, accepting the circumstance of waiting one or half an hour before the doors get open. But then one has c. one hour for a first, more or less calm, private study, before the mass of tourist-groups will capture the rooms. With this and some other little ‘tricks’ I have always been quite successful and had quite a lot of very moving, private moments with the Vermeers and even with Rembrandt’s overwhelming portrait of Jan Six, for the first time on public display in the recent ‘Dutch Portraits’-exhibition in Mauritshuis (naturally, causing long rows of visitors waiting patiently to get in…).

AR

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