With the exhibition of Vermeer’s Woman in Blue Reading a Letter, Incontro con il capolavoro (Encounter with the Masterpiece) is inaugurated, a new exhibition cycle that will bring iconic works from ancient and modern art history to the Palazzo Madama, offering the public privileged opportunities for direct engagement with absolute masterpieces.
Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), Woman Reading a Letter, ca. 1663, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
These are not simply “excellent loans”, but scientific and cultural projects designed to generate knowledge, interdisciplinary dialogue and new ways of interpreting our heritage.
This exhibition suggests an interpretation of Vermeer and his work not only as a master of light and interiors, but as the author of a true “mental painting”, the result of an optical and conceptual revolution that swept through Dutch culture in the seventeenth century.