Dear Arachnes, I managed to get into Cambridge this weekend, and visited the Vermeer exhibition. I'm not a great visitor of Art museums, but I thought this was fantastic, the Dutch masters were certainly masters. Reproductions don't give you any sense of the quality and finish on these paintings - some of which I thought at first were glazed, and ter Borch's silks really glisten. It's subtitled Secrets & Silence, and centres on women at home doing simple domestic tasks. I brought away a real sense of serenity.
Obviously The Lacemaker was one picture I had to see and it is fascinating with its narrow focus on the girl absorbed at her pillow pulling you in. Most of the other pictures have a wider view of women in an interior setting. And it is more 'abstract' than a lot of the others, which strive for an almost photographic realism. It is not the only lace pillow on display, Nicolas Maes' Young Woman Sewing is also here, having set her 'frivolous lace pillow' aside to concentrate on more virtuous plain sewing (the curator's description). Lots of discarded shoes in the pictures, which the curators firmly interpret as being icons of the women's realm being domestic, rather than anything naughty, even in the two Steen's of Women Undressing. Anyway, don't take my poor review as the last word, go and see for yourself if you can. I'll be going back again. Louise In cloudy Cambridge, please send us some rain soon! - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
