Conservation Work on Vermeer Painting Suggests It May Have Been His Final Work 

A little dust never hurt anyone—unless, perhaps, you’re trying to date a Vermeer.Conservation work on Young Woman Seated at a Virginal, the only Vermeer still in private hands, has uncovered a layer of 17th-century air pollution between layers of paint that helped date the rare Old Master picture, according to The Art Newspaper.Specifically, feldspar particles—byproducts of the booming Delftware ceramics industry in Vermeer’s hometown—were trapped in the c