The Astronomer ☶ Vermeer ☷ Art Print horses It is considered a memento

It is considered a memento mori

' and a measure of respect

issue of The Saturday Evening Post

I will paint your eyes

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

The Astronomer ☶ Vermeer ☷ Art Print horses It is considered a mementoThe 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