Hi Daniella here.
Today I'm going to tell you about a book I
enjoyed reading called:
CHASING VERMEER
Written by BLUE BALLIETT and Illustrated by
BRETT HELQUIST
It is about a painting called “A Lady Writing”
by artist Johannes Vermeer
which goes missing and two friends, Petra and Calder” try to find it.
Here is a picture of Petra and Calder trying
to find the painting.
Another fun part of the book was the artwork.
In each picture you have to find a “certain
living creature” and a pentomino to figure out a hidden message.
Can you spot the living creature and the pentomino
in this picture?
I really like this book because it made me
think about codes and art.
Now I would like to read a part of the book
about the artist.
The artist's full name was Johannes Vermeer,
also known as Jan Vermeer,
and he was from the Netherlands, in Northan Europe.
The book explained that no one knew for sure
who the Geographer was, but that the area
where Vermeer lived was a center for mapmakers.
It talked about how people with money liked
to hang maps on the walls of their houses
to show that they were wealthy and that they
thought about the world.
Mapmaking was a respected profession, something
between a science and an art.
Calder flipped back and forth in the book,
looking at some of the other Vermeer paintings.
Most of them showed people in front of a window;
the Geographer's rug appeared in many of the paintings,
and the same yellow jacket turned
up in a number of places.
The pictures made you feel as though you were
peeking in at someone else's private moment.
The light that came from outside made ordinary
objects seem important: a quill, a pen,
a pitcher with milk, an earing, the brass buttons that were part of a straight-backed chair.
It occured to Calder that there could be hidden
information here - after all, codes involved
repetition, and the same objects appreared
again and again in Vermeer's work.
There was the obvious geometry of windowpanes
and floor tiles, and then all the pearls,
baskets, pitchers, and framed maps.
There was symmetry, both complete and carefully
broken.
Calder read more.
The book said that Vermeer died penniless
when he was in his forties, and that almost
nothing was known about his life.
No one understood why such a fabulous painter
had made only thirty-five works of art.
No one knew who the people he painted were,
or why he painted the things he did.
No one knew how he became an artist.
Vermeer had left behind more questions than
answers.
If you like art, codes, crime and mysteries
you would like this book.
I really enjoyed reading this book.
I hope you will too.
See you next time.
Bye.
