Photo Finish.

• Author: Freund, Charles Paul
• Position: The technique of Jan Vermeer - Brief Article

In November, Washington's National Gallery welcomed Johannes Vermeer's famous 1667 canvas, The Art of Painting, as a piece of Fine Arts royalty. Scheduled as the centerpiece of the gallery's hugely popular 1995-96 Vermeer retrospective, the work was then deemed too fragile to travel. The gallery has now honored the restored canvas by making it a one-painting show.

Not bad, given that Vermeer was promptly forgotten for almost 200 years after his death in 1675. Dutch painting in general was long regarded by critics as "vulgar" --it portrayed too many middle-class, bulbous-nosed burghers. Vermeer's current reputation stems not only from the eventual embrace of Dutch work but from technology: It was the spread of photography that revealed Vermeer's...