Reviews & Articles
Risk & Courage in Dissent: Book Review and Interview by Victor Forbes, Editor in Chief
"In the crowded gallery of Vermeer books, Proto’s stands apart. Proto writes with the conviction of someone who has walked the streets of Delft and studied its archives with fresh eyes.For a figure long entombed in the ‘Dutch Golden Age,’ Proto’s Vermeer feels startlingly alive — a master not only of light, but of conscience.”
Johannes Vermeer Provocateur: Risk and Courage in Dissent
“Neil Thomas Proto's Johannes Vermeer Provocateur: Risk and Courage in Dissent presents a provocative reinterpretation of the famous Dutch painter.”
Award-winning Author Neil Thomas Proto Unmasks Vermeer's Political Edge
“Author Neil Thomas Proto looks at Vermeer in a new light and places Allegory alongside Pablo Picasso’s Guernica in its classical spirit of artistic dissent and prophetic warning of his nation’s ethical and moral crisis.”
Johannes Vermeer as Provocateur: Rediscovering Activism in the Dutch Golden Age, Book Review
“In Neil Thomas Proto’s new book, the author argues that Johannes Vermeer paved the way for socially engaged art centuries before its time.”
Vermeer is Not So Fragile
“Johannes Vermeer chose to live and paint in the vortex of battle. He witnessed class condescension, and he and his family were the subject of daily religious bigotry and political repression. Why is the academy so timid in seeing the risk and courage and dissent in his paintings?”
"Drawing on his own book, Johannes Vermeer, Provocateur: Risk and Courage in Dissent, and on scholars like Timothy Brook and Teju Cole, Proto positions Vermeer as a realist who embedded subtle dissent in his work—particularly against the moral decay and inequities of the Dutch Republic, including slavery, colonialism, and Calvinist repression."
Reviews Of Neil Thomas Proto's Other Works
Reviews of Neil Thomas Proto’s other works, including his literary award–winning books, Fearless: A. Bartlett Giamatti and the Battle for Fairness in America (2019) and To a High Court: Five Bold Law Students Challenge Corporate Greed and Change the Law (2023), follow:
“Possibly it is the best solo play ever written.”
The Reckoning: Pecora for the Public – Drama in the Hood
“Proto’s “writing was surprisingly poetic….[H]aving seen the original production of a great play destined to go down in history…[that was] not only highly significant for our era, but for any era.”
The Reckoning: Pecora for the Public – Drama in the Hood
“The personalities he draws are sharp and ready-made for a Hollywood adaptation, and his insider’s look at how the Supreme Court works is fascinating in its own right, at once enormously informative and genuinely entertaining.”
To a High Court – Kirkus Reviews (Our verdict: GET IT), Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2023
“Proto writes with the candor, directness, thoroughness, and passionate pursuit of truth that also characterized Giamatti. His compelling biography is a shining achievement.”
Fearless: A. Bartlett Giamatti – Nick Kotz, Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter and author