RISK and COURAGE in DISSENT
IN HIS NEW BOOK, NEIL THOMAS PROTO RECLAIMS VERMEER FROM THE “DUTCH GOLDEN AGE” AND REVEALS THE PAINTER AS A VOICE OF CONSCIENCE
explained to me But many middle-class women in Vermeer’stimewereengagedinfinancialtransactionstied totrade,includingtheslavetrade Thesearen’tnecessarily love letters they may well be business letters.” That challengetothecanon includingtheFrick’srecent“Love Letters”exhibition isvintageProto:scholarly,yes,butalso provocative,inthebestsenseoftheword.
ProtoisnotthefirsttonoticethemoralchargeinVermeer’s light, but he pushes further, grounding it in the Jesuit Counter-Reformation Living next door to a Jesuit mission and married into a Catholic household, Vermeer absorbed the Jesuits’ belief that art was a weapon of persuasion lightastheology
“Whatfascinatedmewasthe‘sacredfire’ thatlookinthe eye, that gleam,” Proto told me “Vermeer wasn’t just painting pretty effects He was making profound choices Thelightinhispaintingsisn’tjusttechnical it’smoraland theological, tied to vision, goodness, and fairness” Seen throughthislens,The GeographerbecomesThe Explorer not a mere scientist at work, but a figure leaning into the future, animated by conscience and courage. And in Allegory of the Catholic Faith, Vermeer risks everything by placing outlawed Catholic symbols at the center of his canvas, pitting a serpent of repression against the crucifix ofresistance
Thebook’smostcompellingargumentisthatVermeerwas a dissenter not only in faith but in practice Unlike Rembrandt, he never painted portraits of wealthy VOC officials Unlike his contemporaries, he refused to ennoble slavery or exploit colonial subjects as fashionable props “Vermeer painted no servant boys, and no Africans,” Proto stresses Thatsilence,inasocietysaturatedwithimagesof possessionandhierarchy,wasitselfastatement
Instead, Vermeer elevated the ordinary maids, workingclass families, children in the street. He imbued them with dignity and presence, challenging Calvinist disdain for the “unregenerate” His canvases, Proto argues, are conversations colloquiesoffairnessanddissentstagedin paint
Part of what makes Johannes Vermeer Provocateur so absorbing is its resonance today The struggle for full citizenship, the corrosive effects of an exclusive ideology, theentanglementofculturewithsystemsofexploitation all of these echo in our current debates “Sounds familiar, kind of a timely situation,” I remarked to Proto during our interview He nodded The book is less about antiquarian detailthanabouthowartreveals,resists,andreminds Award-winning author, lawyer, and educator Neil ThomasProtohasspentalifetimeatthecrossroads of law, history, and civic passion From the courtrooms of the United States, to the US Supreme Court bar, to the classrooms of Yale and Georgetown,hehaschallengedpower,defendedthe land,andtoldthestoriesofthosewhodaredtoresist injustice For more information, visit his website at vermeerprovocateur.com.