A 3D Flight Over Vermeer’s Delft In 1660

© 2000 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 33, No. 1, p. 59, 2000 59 EXTENDED ABSTRACT A 3D FLIGHT OVER VERMEER’S DELFT IN 1660 Kees Kaldenbach, Haarlemmermeerstraat 83 hs, 1058 JS Amsterdam, the Netherlands. E-mail: . Website: . Received 26 January 1999. Accepted for publication by Roger F. Malina. This extended abstract summarizes key points of the author’s research and project. Contact the author or visit his website for further information. Johannes Vermeer’s View of Delft, which was painted around 1660, has been the focus of attention and growing enthusiasm since it first appeared on public view in Holland. It was purchased in 1822 by the Dutch state for the Royal Collection for the considerable amount of 2,900 Dutch guilders. At the end of the nineteenth century, Theophile Thoré-Bürger, a connoisseur of the arts living in France, was the first to gather information (notes and early photographs) on Vermeer’s life and paintings. Thoré-Bürger’s publications and enthusiasm succeeded in making Vermeer a household name among painters and writers. In the course of the twentieth century, Vermeer came to be considered a “painter’s painter” due to the way in which he perceived and rendered reality. He unlocked new visual devices on a painted surface— demonstrating painterly arts in successfully translating the magic of a still but fleeting moment. Recently I initiated the first 3D virtual flight over the scene of the View of Delft using visualization software (Fig. 1). This project was carried out with the cooperation of the Geodesy Department of Delft University and was completed within 2 months. Geodesy chose to support this spectacular display of computer imagery to celebrate 50 years of Geodesy. The flight is now being presented on a computer screen in Delft’s Technical Museum and will be available at the Central Library of the University. There, one can maneuver a special 3D flight mouse and “fly” over Delft in a real-time visual flight, viewing Delft from the actual spot from which Vermeer Fig. 1. A still from a 3D Virtual Flight over the Dutch town of Delft as it would have appeared in the year 1660. Vermeer must have seen the same scene from the window of a house on the waterfront. (Copyright © 1998 by Kees Kaldenbach and the Geodesy Dept. of the Delft University. See .) must have chosen to paint. Special 3D glasses that interact with the computer screen enhance the spatial effect and allow one to experience the depth of vision that would have been possible from a helicopter, had one been in existence in 1660. A discussion of the Vermeer painting , as well as a number of still shots and information on the 3D Flight over Delft project, can be viewed on my website (in Dutch and English) at: . ...