The Astronomer

One of only two Vermeer paintings depicting a male scholar. A man in a blue robe reaches toward a celestial globe by Jodocus Hondius. The open book is Metius's 1621 Institutiones Astronomicae, advising the astronomer to seek divine inspiration.

Believed to portray Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, the pioneering microscopist. Shares canvas bolt with companion piece The Geographer. On the wall hangs a Finding of Moses, linking science to divine wisdom.

Seized by Nazis from the Rothschild collection in 1940, later recovered and returned. Now at the Louvre.