The Astronomer ☶ Vermeer ☷ Art Print horses appear as dancers

appear as dancers

allowing the viewer to place themselves into the scene as either of the two

It depicts a farmer standing beside his daughter - often mistaken to be his wife - with the symmetry of the two mimicking the shape of the unique upper window

' and a measure of respect

It is considered a memento mori

The Astronomer ☶ Vermeer ☷ Art Print horses appear as dancersThe Astronomer (1668) by Johannes Vermeer depicts an astronomer looking at a globe. It is closely paired with The Geographer, which used the same model, and canvas from the same bolt of material. The astronomer's profession is indicated by the celestial globe (by Jodocus Hondius) and a book on the table, the 1621 edition of Adriaan Metius's Institutiones Astronomicae Geographicae. Symbolically, the volume is open to Book III, a section advising the