Captured in a reflective moment gazing wistfully over her shoulder across a room at the spectacular View of Delft, a subtly sunlit medieval urban landscape painting idolising her homeland's Golden Age, she is free again to dream Dutch dreams.
After a three-year, three-continent tour on which she was admired by millions as her home underwent a multi-million-euro restoration, Johannes Vermeer's celebrated painting The Girl with a Pearl Earring returned last year to the resplendent Mauritshuis Royal Picture House in Den Haag, or The Hague. Oft called the "Dutch Mona Lisa", this iconic image of an evocatively beautiful young girl with fair skin and eyes that penetrate the soul, juxtaposed against a black background, will never again leave the Netherlands. Deemed too precious for future travel, she will remain here amid other masterpieces.
Just outside, nature offers even greater allure. On lanes surrounding the Hofvijver, an urban pond once surrounded by dunes and where the counts of Holland based their city, powerful breezes blow in from the nearby North Sea through tall trees lining elegant avenues. The air is tinged with salt and crying seagulls.
As the Dutch Golden Age was fading into history and myth in the late 1600s, British diplomat William Aglionby feted The Hague with a description that has proven timeless -- "a place which by the breadth of its streets, the nobleness of its buildings, the pleasant shade of its trees and the civility of its inhabitants, may justly claim the title of the most pleasant place in the world".
Also enriching the heart of the blissfully >> >> walkable de-facto Dutch capital, and swirling through the medieval courtyard of the Binnenhof complex housing the world's oldest parliament still in use, is the indomitable spirit of freedom. Pedestrians and cyclists shortcut through the gothic courtyard dating from the 1300s, kept open at all times in a statement to the longevity of Dutch democracy. A few kilometres north, past the Peace Palace and Peace Garden, a powerful symbol of the city's association with civil justice, lies vast Scheveningen Beach. Here the relentless pressures of the bracing North Sea meet the city, which is easily and quickly accessed from Schiphol Airport and Amsterdam.
haunting: 'The Girl with a Pearl Earring' casts her mesmerising gaze on visitors at the Mauritshuis.
The origins of Den Haag, also known as the City of Peace and Justice, are intriguingly revealed in a tour of either or both houses of parliament, which begins with a fascinating film screened in the castle-like Binnenhof, or Hall of Knights, before guests spiral up a circular staircase leading to a viewing platform looking out at the central chamber, where every September the Dutch monarch gives the Speech from the Throne in a ritual opening the parliamentary season.
Across the Binnenhof's grey sea of flagstones in the Eerste Kamer, or Senate, a painting of Vredesmaagd (Goddess of Peace) stares down one of Mars (God of War) across the chamber where Europe's oldest parliament still goes about its business.
The city's association with humanity's more admirable qualities emerged from darker times. Across the street from the parliamentary complex, within a matrix of impenetrable stonework, lies the Museum de Gevangenpoort (Prison Museum) and stories of medieval nature. In a cramped, poorly lit cell, it was the sounds that offered the real horrors. "The torture chamber underneath this room has fantastic acoustics," explains a guide. "It's psychological. It gets you ready for confession." One lucky inmate, however, was ultimately able to flush himself to freedom. "Some time in the early 1500s, one inmate found a way out. He escaped through the toilet."
The darkness fortunately disperses while walking down Lange Voorhout, elegant for its tall trees and many embassies as well as the fascinating Escher in the Palace museum. In what was the Winter Palace of Queen Emma for the first third of the 20th century, a sense of mystery pervades, as liberation from mundaneness occurs in absorbing works like Metamorphose II, in which proto-turtles morph into honeycombs that give birth to bees that then channel their inner fish before becoming birds that soon construct a cityscape. In another of classic print of Escher, an aqueduct somehow funnels water heavenward.
bastion of democracy: the medieval Hall of Knights has been the centre of political life in the Netherlands throughout the centuries. CARLETON COLE
The museum's recent controversy, when it was revealed that dozens of the works here are replicas, seems most ironic considering Escher's philosophy. "I cannot refrain from demonstrating the nonsensicalness of some of what we take to be irrefutable certainties," a placard here states, ideally summarising the mathematician-artist's style. "For example, it is a pleasure to deliberately mix together objects of two and three dimensions, surface and spatial relationships, and to make fun of gravity. Are you certain you are going upwards when you ascend a staircase?"
The question seems appropriate for those on the narrow staircase in the 108-metre-tall bell tower New Church in nearby Delft while encountering those corkscrewing in the opposite direction, necessitating one party to squeeze into a crevice designed for such a purpose.
It can indeed feel like walking into Escher's signature print Ascending and Descending. For those who make it to the top, rewards may come in the form of a blast of North Sea wind and rain, punctuated by the chimes of church bells, and a "view of Delft" more visceral than the version in the Mauritshuis.
Down the central chamber, just past the elaborate marble sarcophagus where national hero William the Silent is entombed, lies a much smaller marker for the simpler grave of Vermeer. Brochures describe that the artist who "died a pauper" and how "church books record that there was "nothing to collect".
The poor man nevertheless left a rich legacy, which can be appreciated across the street in the Vermeer Centrum, where reproductions of his 37 known paintings are displayed. Placards expose exactly how the "master of light" used pointillism in transforming wine jugs, sheet music, violas, bowl of fruit and symbols of bourgeois interiors hinting at various elements of romantic love. "He directs and edits his scenes in such a way that we certainly get some clues," reads a placard, "but much remains to keep us guessing".
This matches Escher's maxim that "there has to be a degree of mystery, but one that isn't immediately apparent". And how reality is ultimately in the eye of the beholder. And yet, looking deeper and sensing the overall message of these works of Vermeer, it is the overall appreciation for light that remains the most powerful, intrinsic message. "Vermeer lives his whole life in Delft, as far as we know," explains a sign. "Here his talent grows. Here he creates a whole world of his own in his paintings. A world of light, peacefulness and mysterious stories. A world that captivates us to this day."
code of conduct: the Peace Palace "was born out of the shared value that justice leads to peace, and peace leads to justice". PHOTOS: CARLETON COLE
going dutch: Atop the 376 steps of the narrow spiral staircase in the tower of Delft's New Church await refreshing breezes, chiming bells and a vintage cityscape. Rostislav Ageev
timeless: Johannes Vermeer's masterful 'View of Delft' is displayed opposite his also iconic 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' in the Mauritshuis. PHOTOS: CARLETON COLE
changing times: over an epic four metres, Escher's 'Metamorphose II' dazzles and continually transforms.
Not a medieval spa bed: Above, a torture rack at the Prison Gate Museum. CARLETON COLE
piracy: a skull-and-crossbones chandelier typifies the unexpectedness within the Escher in the Palace museum.
tradition: nowhere else in The Hague does Dutch historical identity more powerfully resonate than in the medieval Binnenhof.
