‘The most mysterious and beloved artist of all time’: New blockbuster show makes history

"The most mysterious and beloved artist of all time." Without a hint of apology, this is how the general director of Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, Taco Dibbits, describes Vermeer. And it's hard to disagree. Of course, we have other more recognizable names — Leonardo, Rembrandt, Picasso, Van Gogh — but has any other great artist been so intensely studied and revisited in recent years as the Dutchman Johannes Vermeer of Delft?