The Art of Ironing is, primarily, a Russian advertisement for steam irons, however it is also a remarkable demonstration of recreating art from unusual materials; in this case, a simple white piece of cloth.
posted by quin on Nov 26, 2012 - 11 comments

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, home to Rembrandt's The Night Watch and Vermeer's The Milkmaid, among many other masterpieces, today unveiled the Rijksstudio, 125,000 digitized images of its collections, available in a zoomable interface online or as high-resolution public-domain downloads (account creation required for the latter).
posted by Horace Rumpole on Oct 31, 2012 - 31 comments

Johannes Vermeer's "Woman Holding A Balance" [more inside]
posted by Egg Shen on Aug 17, 2012 - 15 comments

In the 17th century Dutch painters began to create informal paintings that focused on the features and/or expressions of anonymous people. These were called tronies. Although a tronie showed a person’s face, it wasn’t considered a portrait. [...] In 1995 Dutch photographer Hendrik Kerstens began a series of tronies featuring his daughter Paula. some images NSFW
posted by xod on May 22, 2008 - 35 comments

Walking with Vermeer - stroll through 17th century Delft via movie clips based on original drawings. Or tour his house and studio via a 3D model to see a full inventory of household objects and to get some homely historical perspective on making love, birthing babies or dealing with trash and excrement. And if you want to research further, Essential Vermeer is the definitive resource for everything from historical research to current exhibits.
posted by madamjujujive on Feb 25, 2004 - 7 comments