The Vermeer Center Delft brings back Johannes Vermeer to Delft. The center is located at the historical location of the Saint Lucas guild (painters guild) on the Voldersgracht. Johannes Vermeer is one of the best known artists from the Dutch Golden Age. His name is inextricably linked with Delft, the city in which he was born in 1632 and where he lived and worked all his life. His paintings found their way all over the world. The Vermeer Center Delft is housed on the historic site of the former St. Lucas Guild, where Vermeer was Dean of the painters for many years.
In the world of Vermeer, you experience 17th century Delft. Wandering through the famous ‘View of Delft’ and encounters with Vermeer's environment and the breeding ground for his talent: the blossoming academic and artistic climate in Delft, his customers, his family and his wealthy mother-in-law.
In Vermeer's world, life-size images of all his paintings have been brought together. An oeuvre of 36 paintings in which Vermeer created a whole new world.
References:The Villa d'Este is a 16th-century villa in Tivoli, near Rome, famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and especially for its profusion of fountains: the extraordinary system contains fifty-one fountains and nymphaeums, 398 spouts, 364 water jets, 64 waterfalls, and 220 basins, fed by 875 meters of canals, channels and cascades, and all working entirely by the force of gravity, without pumps. It is now an Italian state museum, and is listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.
Tivoli had been a popular summer residence since ancient Roman times due to its altitude, cooler temperatures and its proximity to the Villa Hadriana, the summer residence of the Emperor Hadrian I.
The Villa was commissioned by Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este (1509-1572), second son of Alfonso I d'Este, the Duke of Ferrara and grandson of Pope Alexander VI, along with Lucrezia Borgia.