An Illustrated Journey into the Life & Times of Vermeer takes you back in time to the second half of the "Golden Age" of the Netherlands, to its politics, its society and its art. The richest country in the world had become an independent nation state after eighty years of war, and was now run by a business elite, which was consolidating its business interests at home and overseas. Taste had shifted from religious painting to a worldly art, and Vermeer became its most remarkable representative with his paintings of domestic settings, conveying a moral message. Visually supported by over forty hand-painted full-page graphics, Vermeer talks in his own voice about his life, his art and his career, and about "the major historical events that affected him" and that shaped the Dutch nation, unfolding 'the story' of The Netherlands. For a preview please check http: //jvanaarsen.weebly.com/