158. Exhibition On Screen: Vermeer - The Greatest Exhibition; movie review

EXHIBITION ON SCREEN: VERMEER - THE GREATEST EXHIBITION

Cert PG

93 mins

BBFC advice: Contains mild sex references

I am intrigued.

I have now watched two Phil Grabsky-inspired films about Vermeer and neither has addressed the theory of camera obscura.

Instead, this movie, in common with his Girl With The Pearl Earring, is merely a celebration of the Dutch artist.

Contributing expers don't even question how he managed to gain the perspective which no artists had previously achieved or why almost every Vermeer painting is in the same room with an open window and light filtering in.

Back in 2014, I watched a documentary called Tim's Vermeer in which it was claimed that he used a sequence of lenses and mirrors to create the effect of a photo.

He then effectively traced on paper before going to work with his paints.

It is fair enough that this assertion may be discredited by some art historians but it seemed quite odd that it wasn't even discussed in such a thorough analysis of his paintings.

Instead, Vermeer: The Greatest Exhibition, directed by David Bickerstaff and narrated by Robert Lindsay, scrutinises his most famous works and experts make bold statements about his motivations.

Despite their lack of obvious doubt, they can only theorise because there is no documentation to go with the work of Vermeer.

I would have liked to know more about the painter and his family background or even more about the activities in his home city of Delft which may have influenced his work.

But the contributions are enthusiastic but very academic - the type one might expert to hear in university art history lectures.

This made them surprisingly inaccessible for a film produced by Grabsky whose previous documentaries have been so enlightening as well as entertaining.

By comparison, I found this one a little too high-brow.

Reasons to watch: Incredibly thorough

Reasons to avoid: Too much like a university art lecture

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 6/10

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Did you know?  No sketches or preparatory drawings by Vermeer are known to exist and his creative process is still shrouded in mystery.

The final word. David Bickerstaff: "When you see them (Vermeer's paintings) one after the other… you can see the progression of his mastery and the themes that he keeps developing." The Art Newspaper

 

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