'Traces of Vermeer' strives to figure out the actual nitty-gritty of Vermeer's craft

Juriaan van Streeck was born in Amsterdam in 1632. He married at 21, had nine children, moved around from job to job, and was for years an extremely accomplished painter specializing in still lifes of remarkable texture and craft. He died in 1687, and today, four centuries later, his name is known only to a few art dealers and connoisseurs of the Golden Age of Dutch painting

Also born in 1632, less than 50 miles away in the Dutch town of Delft,, a meaty and intensely interesting new book by Jane Jelley.