Vermeer's Hat Analysis

Taylor Bruce
Vermeer’s Hat is not the easiest of works to define. It encompasses the 17th century’s Dutch lifestyle intertwined with an expanding world. There is possibly very little other literature that gives us a glimpse of 17th century’s way of life in a fascinating and captivating manner like Vermeer’s Hat does. The vividness is unmatched, making one feel the atmosphere that existed then, in an intense manner. The work is indeed in many aspects historical. It captures and explains eventful moments of the 17th century. It also documents and preserves the circumstances surrounding the history of not only the Dutch but also other world players of the 17th century. Another dimension that is prevalent to the reader is the commercial aspect
As the author demonstrates, the interconnections were forced by the growth in commerce. The author uses the paintings to illustrate the commerce world as it existed then. For instance, the “Woman holding a Balance” supposedly about to weigh money lets the reader appreciate that the era was characterized by business activities. This is further indicated by the explanation that what the painting depicts was quite normal for that time. But connectivity of worlds is more assertively depicted in many other paintings that show a variety of commodities. The fact that the commodities are not necessarily ordinary, as depicted by exotic goods including the ‘beaver hat’, the Chinese fruit bowl and the American silver pieces show that different regions of the world were interlinked. In essence, these imported commodities were a routine phenomenon in the European life the distance from where they originated notwithstanding. This can be assessed against the modern day scenario whereby it is not surprising to encounter Chinese or European goods in American households and vice
The trade involved moving goods to and from the Americas, Asia, and Africa. The goods; tropical islands’ spices, beaver pelts from America, and the Chinese porcelain, had their prices getting lower and therefore affordable owing to a vibrant shipping industry. Inland transport was by such rowed boats as the French boats which were, however, an inconvenience in rivers with many rapids. Mobility over the sea was one milestone that aided Dutch and other internationally trading nations to prosper. It enabled the merchants to facilitate ‘encounter’ and therefore achieve connectivity of different peoples; the Chinese, the Japanese, the Mohawks, the Huron, Algonquin and certainly the Europeans including the French and the English. The author also acknowledges the presence of the Portuguese and the Spaniards in the arena of international commerce. The mobility that characterized the transport of goods and merchants must have sown the seeds for the future’s globalized world. As the author points out ‘the people were weaving a web of connections and exchanges as never before’. This is strikingly similar to globalization today when worlds are more interconnected than