Johannes Vermeer – The Geographer, 1669.
Johannes Vermeer – The Astronomer, 1668.
Obe Vermerove slike, nastale u približno istom periodu, oduvek su bile moja fascinacija, iz tri razloga: soba, i u njoj Putnik. Svetlost izvesnih tonova koja evocira i poziva na dinamiku, onu unutrašnju, kontemplativnog posmatrača. Najzad, tu su mape i globusi, predmeti Dedaovih potomaka – homo fabera, a ja sam pasionirani sakupljač globusa, kao i čitalac onih knjiga u kojima su mape, globusi, kompasi i brodski dnevnici neke od glavnih komponenti.
No, i da nisam, dakle, nezavisno od sećanja i žudnji iz detinjstva, Vermerove slike nedvosmisleno zadržavaju pogled. Prvenstveno zbog svetlosti, a zatim i zbog pogleda oba muškarca – kartografa i astronoma (zna se kolika je pomorska sila Holandija bila u 17. veku) – koji su neodređeni, zaustavljeni u svetlosti, ali ne i njome oboreni. Nalik Rembrantovom Faustu koji u mraku svoje sobe na vrhu kule vidi svetlost koja ne dolazi od sjaja Sunca.
Motiv kartografa, kao i naučnika koji u mraku svoje sobe otkrivaju, čitaju i tragaju, čest je u umetnosti doba renesanse i baroka, koji posredno insistira na Ja, na individualizmu koji je jedna od distingtivnih odlika evropskog čoveka. Prodor, transgresija, prekoračenje granica datih moralnim ili prirodnim zakonima, odlika je faustovskog čoveka koji vrhunac svakako doživljava u Geteovom delu kada Faust, uprkos svim zločinima, biva iskupljen, nikako kažnjen.
Ovi kartografi nisu surovi belgijski generali koji su ubili milione ljudi u Africi ali jesu znanje, potraga, težnja ka proširenju dometa ljudskih mogućnosti i volje. No, sve što se može upotrebiti, može se i zloupotrebiti i to je, rekla bih, pojednostavljena definicija tragalaca faustovskog kova. O Vermerovim slikama, kao i biografskim detaljima, možete čitati na sajtu Essential Vermeer. O prikazanim slikama možete čitati ovde.
U nastavku slede i dela koja su u neposrednoj vezi sa ovim Vermerovim slikama. Prvo je Gerita Doa, holandskog slikara koji je nekoliko decenija pre Vermera, a negde u isto vreme kad i Rembrant, naslikao svog “astronoma” (sam umetnik nije dao naziv slici). Zatim, sa istraživača i globusa, prelazim na mape. Posle Geritove slike sledi mapa francuskog kartografa Majerna Turkea, a zatim i stranice renesansnog atlasa koje prikazuju tada poznate teritorijue poput Skandinavije ili Palestine.
SLIKA GERITA DOA
Gerrit Dou – Astronomer by Candlelight (detail), late 1650s
“In an arched, window-like opening, an astronomer works late into the night. Concentrating, he reads an astronomical treatise and measures the distance between two points on a celestial globe. The candle he holds provides the only source of light; it illuminates his face, the book, the precious globe, the beaker of water, and his hourglass.
Strong contrasts between light and dark show the painter Gerrit Dou’s knowledge of a popular Baroque technique known as chiaroscuro . Carefully rendering minute details such as the handwriting in the book, the texture of the glass flask, and the folds in the astronomer’s cloak was Dou’s special talent. Collectors treasured these small, detailed paintings for pleasurable observation in their private rooms.” *
MAJERN TURKE I NJEGOVA MAPA
“Mayerne Turquet’s map shows the entire world in one circle, with inevitable distortions to the areas at the extreme radii. The geographical outline is simplified, with the borders of various countries shown, but only a few place names. Around the map are panels of text and personifications of the seasons. As Eyries states in Nouvelles Annales, II, “La projection en est très bizarre.” The map is truly bizarre.
To produce a map of the world in a convenient way, cartographers use map projections: any transformation between the curved reference surface of the earth and the flat plane of the map. The transformation from the curved reference surface of the earth to the flat plane of the map is never completely successful. By flattening the curved surface of the sphere onto the map the curved surface is stretched in a non-uniform manner. The distortions increase as the distance from the central point of the projection increases. On a world map, the distortions are evident where landmasses are wrongly sized or out of shape and the meridians and parallels do not intersect at right angles or are not spaced uniformly.
The five common azimuthal (also known as Zenithal) projections are the Stereographic projection, the Orthographic projection, the Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection, the Gnomonic projection and the azimuthal equidistant or Postel projection, so named after Guillaume Postel’s 1581 northern hemisphere map. The Postel projection style would become the standard for polar terrestrial maps for centuries.
The first cartographer to fashion a north polar azimuthal equidistant map of the entire world was Urbano Monte of Milan. Monte’s map consited of sixty-four sheets and was issued in 1603. Mayerne Turquet’s work followed in 1648 and inspired others, including the highly influential work of Jean-Dominique Cassini, who produced a now lost world map on the floor of the Paris Observatory in the 1680s. “ *
JEDAN RENESANSNI ATLAS
(c. 1520, New York Public Library Collections)
Scandinavia
Palestine
