Last summer I did the daring: spent a month on a military history trip to Europe with my dad John and son Chris and tramped all over World War II battlefields and historic sites. But we also got in some quality time in pure culture, too, as with several days spent in Paris. At the Louvre, one of the highlights for us was seeing Johannes Vermeer’s famous painting “The Astronomer,” completed by the Dutch master about 1668. Not only is the painting one of the most famous of its time and terrific for showing an astronomer in contemplation, but — amazingly — the model posing for Vermeer is thought to have been none other than Anton van Leeuwenhoek, the perfecter of the microscope.
Stolen by the Nazis during World War II, the painting was returned postwar and makes a fabulous stop on the Louvre tour. And, oh yeah, there’s that other painting, too — that one by Da Vinci that grabs some attention. It’s pretty spectacular — as is the constant throng milling in front of it, disbelieving how physically small it is.