048 Арт и Вермеер Офицер и Смеющийся

The officer at the front of this small Vermeer is far too big. His head is nearly twice the width of the laughing girl a step behind him. For a painter this careful, it looks like a beginner's error. It is not. The perspective is mathematically exact, the swelling of the near and shrinking of the far that a close viewpoint, or a lens, produces. And recent scans caught Vermeer quietly refining the same scene, painting flamboyant feathers onto the officer's hat and then painting them out. What looks like a mistake is Vermeer showing us how seeing really works. Look closer. ----- Copyright Disclaimer under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976: allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research.