I made this print as a warm-up to visiting the Vermeer exhbit at the National Gallery in Wahington, D.C. in 1996. The model posing is Vermeer's friend van Leeuwenhoek, the inventor of the microscope. Both men were born in Delft, Holland within the same week; both earned their living by means other than their avocations of science and painting. I became fascinated to imagine the nature of their friendship, and to discover hints of symbolism and meaning in the structure of the painting. It seems a signal of Vermeer's genius that I was able to work things out using only six blocks!