The Astronomer

Vermeer's astronomer reaches out to touch a celestial globe on the cabinet — a specific published object, the 1600 Jodocus Hondius celestial globe. A year later, Vermeer would paint the Geographer, showing the matched terrestrial globe. The two globes were sold as a pair by Hondius in Amsterdam. Vermeer knew this. Painted a year apart, hanging in different museums today — the Astronomer in the Louvre, the Geographer in Frankfurt — the two globes have been separated for centuries. They were sold together in 1600. Now at Musée du Louvre, Paris @museelouvre