Vermeer's Hat Analysis

Vermeer’s Hat offers a unique look at the rise of global trade through Brook’s eyes. Brook uses each of the paintings to describe to the audience a different picture of how the world began progressing. Most think of Vermeer as an isolated artist, with no real connection to the world outside of the walls of his mother-in-law’s house. However, as Brook shows us throughout the story, this could not be further from the truth. Brook relies on the paintings to interpret the rise of global trade to show the audience how architecture has contributed to the rise of global trade, how specific objects in the paintings related to trade, and how geography influenced trade. The first painting that Brook introduces to the audience is called “View of Delft”.

At first glance, each of the paintings look simply like a nice scene, with no historical role at play behind it. Again, this could not be further from the truth. The third painting that Brook shows us, is “Young Woman Reading a Letter at an Open Window”. The key element in this painting is the dish of fruit beneath the woman. This dish was was painted when the Chinese porcelain was taking its place in the Dutch’s life. The first porcelain dish to reach Europe amazed everyone, because of the attention to detail, quality, and fanciness that it possessed. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to acquire this delicacy. From there, it went to south of China, where it was negotiated with Chinese wholesalers for more of this porcelain. The route that porcelain took was crucial to commerce worldwide, so the Dutch wanted to get into it. After this, porcelain only increased in popularity and expanded trade around the world and soon, the most successful emerging business was the porters of Delft. Porcelain dishes were more than just breathtaking. Brook, himself, points out that they were a symbol of the Dutch positive relation to the world outside and the overcoming of challenges. Without porcelain reaching its supreme popularity in Delft, many trade routes around the world would not have been

Geography plays a key role with trade. The fourth painting that Brook shows us is called “The Geographer”. The main focal point in this painting is the globe that is located behind the man. During this time, knowledge of geography was far from perfect, but it was drastically improving. As Brook points out, the Spanish Jesuit, Adrino de las Cortes, was a great example of the moving geography of the epoch. The ship that he led was crashed onto the rocks of the Chinese coast by 1625, right after it had departed from Manila. This was completely by mistake, as they soon discovered uncharted territory. The people who had been living there had never seen any foreign people at a close range. It surprised them to see the wide span of people they brought: African Americans, Portuguese, Muslims, Spaniards, and the list goes on. This showed that the rise of the global world did not only imply goods and material objects, but also people from all