Vermeer's Hat

“The seventeenth century was not so much an era of first contacts as an age of second contacts, when sites of first encounter were turning into places of repeated meeting.”

This quote highlights how globalization began. Instead of first contacts, which often ended in violence or misunderstanding, people were meeting for the second time, meaning they were seeking understanding.

“Art critic James Elkins has argued that paintings are puzzles that we feel compelled to solve in order to ease our perplexities about the world in which we find ourselves, as well as our uncertainties as to just how it is that we found ourselves here.” 

Brook notes how paintings are considered puzzles that people feel inclined to solve. The hope is that by “solving” a painting, people can better understand themselves in relation to the world.

“Paintings are not ‘taken’, like photographs; they are ‘made’, carefully and deliberately, and not to show an objective reality so much as to present a particular scenario.” 

Brook makes an important distinction about what paintings really convey: they are not meant to be objective, but are subjective and convey what the painter wants to express.