Vermeer's Hat
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Review
'Brook takes you into the paintings in a way that can be spookily intimate' William Leith, Evening Standard --William Leith, Evening Standard
`An erudite, surprising book that finds traces of swashbuckling where you'd least expect' --Daily Telegraph
'Truly mesmerising.' --Lesley McDowell, Independent on Sunday
`Illuminating footnotes to Vermeer's miracles on canvas'
--Independent
`An erudite, surprising book that finds traces of swashbuckling where you'd least expect' --Daily Telegraph
'Truly mesmerising.' --Lesley McDowell, Independent on Sunday
`Illuminating footnotes to Vermeer's miracles on canvas'
--Independent
Review
`How brilliantly Brook connects all with all' Guardian
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a wonderfully well written text that uses items featured in Vermeer's paintings to provide a highly informative and fascinating account of trade and exploration in the 17th Century (the Dutch Golden Age as it is often referred to). Unlike a couple of the other reviewers I felt it was worth every penny. The author is clearly extremely knowledgeable about the period and has a confident writing style. He provides some lucidly written accounts that focus on specific individuals and events. This approach works very well and provides you with some fascinating insights. If you are interested in this period then I strongly recommend this text to you.
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Simply, a beautiful and breathtaking book. Full of marvels and curiousities, each chapter opens out to show the wider maps and ideas we thought we knew about...small details from the paintings are peered closely at, and behind them the seventeenth-century world of travel and trade, narrated through human encounters and stories. He writes wonderfully well and with such clarity about often complex issues, effortlessly moving the focus and scene from place to place: so there's a lovely rhythm about the book as he paces the (frequent) surprises subtly and narrates them with a drole and deceptively easy style. I started to read the other day and was still sat there seven hours later, transfixed by it, slowing up the pace of reading, not wanting it to end.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is an interesting new perspective in Vermeer studies, looking at the objects in his paintings from the point of view of the expanding trade networks of the 17th century. It is engagingly written and he wears his scholarship lightly.
I was disappointed the author did not investigate Vermeer's famous blue colour (anachronistically called "cobalt blue" in the book), since the ultramarine would itself have come from a complex trade network, and how it came to Delft would itself have made quite a story.
I was disappointed the author did not investigate Vermeer's famous blue colour (anachronistically called "cobalt blue" in the book), since the ultramarine would itself have come from a complex trade network, and how it came to Delft would itself have made quite a story.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
more about China than about Vermeer
Brook uses the small and well-known oeuvre of Vermeer and the objects pictured in it as a window into the 17th century world. Read more
Published 8 days ago by Michael Gross
Excellent and informative reading
Very interesting reading. The first story is the best: it is outstanding and very clever. But the other stories are hugely informative too on the beginning of the global world and... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Lectrice
Globalization and its roots
Vermeer's Hat by Timothy Brook is not really about Vermeer, or hats, or art for that matter. It's a book about globalization sixteenth century-style. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Philip Spires
Interesting
I had never even heard of this book until it turned up as the suggestion for the next read in our local book group. Read more
Published 5 months ago by M. Dowden
An absorbing book which is not about Vermeer!
As my title sugests, the first thing any potential purchaser needs to know about this book is that it is not really about the artist or his work at all. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Eugene Onegin
A hidden treasure
I read "Vermeer's Hat" by Timothy Brook with great pleasure.
It deals with the dawn - in the seventeenth century - of global trade in porcelain, tabacco and silver amongst... Read more
It deals with the dawn - in the seventeenth century - of global trade in porcelain, tabacco and silver amongst... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Frans Brouwers
A fascinating glimpse into the birth of globalism
I read this book in preparation for a a visit to Delft (Vermeer's birthplace) in an effort to understand his work a little better, but ended up enjoying it for the truly... Read more
Published 20 months ago by tunbridgewellsred
Vermeer's Hat
Thank you for your prompt service. The book was a compeling read and I loved its content and approach. Read more
Published on 8 Dec 2009 by Mrs. W. B. Taylor
A very original take on history
I adore history books on virtually any period in (mostly) European history, and this was no exception. Indeed, I found Brook's point of view extremely refreshing. Read more
Published on 20 Nov 2009 by Didier
Vermeer's China
My expectation of this book was that I would read a lot about Vermeer and his paintings. To my surprise I found that the author was more interested in China than Vermeer. Read more
Published on 3 Sep 2009 by Mary B-W
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