Little is known about the personality of Johannes Vermeer, one of the most famous Dutch painters of the 17th century. We do know that he married the Catholic Catharina Bolnes, whose family was closely associated with the Jesuit community in Delft.

In this book, Gregor J.M. Weber, head of visual arts at the Rijksmuseum, shows that Vermeer himself actually pursued a Catholic lifestyle. The relationship between the artistic ambitions of the young Vermeer and his Catholic surroundings is also dis...

The eighteenth century is the most international, most European century in Dutch (art) history. This book, with 100 of the most beautiful and surprising objects from the Rijksmuseum's collection of eighteenth-century art and history, demonstrates this beautifully – even if only by the iconic picture of a Dutch girl at breakfast painted in 1756 by Swiss artist Jean-Etienne Liotard. Many other paintings, sculptures, pieces of furniture, silver and golden showpieces and other works of art were...