The 17th century. Delft. Working within the mythic "Dutch Golden Age," Johannes Vermeer mastered light, color, and intimate settings. Award-winning author Neil Thomas Proto throws off that limiting mask, weaving the documented strands of terror, slavery, and condescension with risk-taking, courage, and dissent into a revealing image of the religious and social repression Vermeer's countrymen unleashed at home and abroad. Civically driven, Vermeer defied the forces of law and corporate power that underpin that repression with the subtle strokes of his paintbrush. Look at Vermeer and his extraordinary paintings as you never have before.