1. Some of the great artists who portrayed science and scientists:
William Blake, Gerrit Dou, Rembrandt van Rijn, Hans Holbein, Carpaccio, Vermeer, etc
Johannes Vermeer van Delft's "The Geographer”
Van Leeuwenhoek and Vermeer
click to hear mp3
Anthonie van Leeuwenhoek
mp3 courtesy marco schuffelen
The connection between Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek, citizen of Delft and father of microbiology, and Johannes Vermeer has tantalized art historians for at least a generation.
Both men were baptized within a few days in October, They lived a few minutes walk from one another and both worked with, and were fascinated by, state-of-the-art optical devices, optics and, perhaps, its philosophical ramifications. However, even though writers from a range of disciplines have speculated upon the ties between the great Delft scientist with the great Delft artist, only one documented contact between them has been registered, albeit, when the artist was already dead but the scientist still alive (Van Leeuwenhoek would survive Vermeer by 48 years).
Jan Verkolje (I)
Oil on canvas, 56 x 47.5 cm.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Both men worked with lenses. And both men were ambitious. An experienced businessman, Van Leeuwenhoek realized that if his simple method for creating the critically important lens were revealed, the scientific community of his time would likely disregard or even forget his role in microscopy. He therefore allowed others to believe that he was laboriously spending most of his nights and free time grinding increasingly tiny lenses to use in microscopes. After seven years and a dozen letters published in their peer-reviewed journal, Philosophical Transactions, the Royal Society of London elected him a Fellow in 1680.
On the other hand, when Vermeer painted his masterwork, The Art of Painting, its compositional complexity, exceptional dimensions and grand theme whereby the artist could claim eternal fame through his art, he left no doubt as to his lofty ambitions. And although there is no objective proof in regards, circumstantial strongly suggests that the courting Vermeer had made serious inroads among upper crust of elite art collectors and men of culture in and around Delft.
For Van Leeuwenhoek, observation of the microscopic world through his tiny, hand-made devices (he made more than 200 of them in his lifetime) carried with it an implicit confirmation of God's creation. After having seen teaming "animacules" in water drawn from his gutter her wrote:
"Once more we see here the unconceivable Providence, perfection, and order bestowed by the Lord Creator of the Universe upon such little creatures which escape our bare eye, in
Van Leeuvenhoek by Vermeer

2. ILLNESS
BIRTH
DEATH

3. Gerrit Dou, 17th Century Astronomers by candlelight
Anatomist, geographer, artist

4. William Blake on Isaac Newton

5. REMBRANDT: Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer
Dr. Tulp’s Anatomy Lesson

7. CARPACCIO: The Studio of St. Augustine

8. HANS HOLBEIN: The Ambassadors, with close-ups

9. Portrait of Anthony van Leeuwenhoek
by Johannes Verkolje (1686)
Johannes Vermeer van Delft's "The Geographer"

10. VERMEER: A view of Delft
A new book about Vermeer
and van Leeuvenhoek