They say that Apple CEO Tim Cook is quite friendly and funny at times, that his sense of humor does not quite fit with his serious and committed demeanor. But when he said that he saw an iPhone in an old Flemish painting, it seems that he was not joking. A few years ago, during the event Start-up Fest in Amsterdam, Cook spoke to former European Commissioner Neelie Kroes and publicly confessed the anecdote.
The anecdote dates back to the previous evening, when Kroes invited Cook to stroll through the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The National Museum in Amsterdam is best known for its huge collection of Dutch Golden Age paintings, the largest collection in the world. In one of the rooms, during that stroll, Tim witnessed something very strange: One of the paintings featured a character holding an iPhone.
A man handing a letter to a woman in a hallway
In front of a packed auditorium, Neelie Kroes joked about it by asking Tim Cook, “So, when was the iphone invented?” Tim’s response couldn’t have been more curious: “You know, I thought I knew that until last night.” Then he turned to the audience and continued: “Last night Neelie took me to look at Rembrandt and one of the paintings blew my mind. There was an iPhone in one of those paintings.” “It’s hard to see, but I swear it’s there”Cook said.
The painting Tim Cook is referring to is ‘A man handing a letter to a woman in a hallway, Oil on canvas 68×59 cm painted in 1670. And In fact it does not even belong to the mythical Rembrandtbut it is by Pieter de Hooch, one of the great masters of the Dutch Baroque who worked in “genre painting”, a style focused on illustrating everyday scenes.
Who was Pieter de Hooch?
Detail of the original painting
Pieter de Hooch is a Dutch Golden Age master, famous for his light and deep domestic scenes. Born in 1629 in Rotterdam, his ability to capture everyday life with a poetic touch sets him apart. His thing is costumbrismo. A curious anecdote is that, while working for the merchant Justus de la Grange, de Hooch often traveled between Delft and Leiden, delivering his works in exchange for maintenance. This arrangement allowed him to dedicate himself to works such as ‘The Linen Cupboard’, one of his most famous.
If we refer to the painting in question, as can be seen, the character on the right is holding what appears to be a first-generation iPhone, with its design that Approximately matches the original measurements: 115mm x 61mm x 11.6mmAfter watching for a while, Tim repeated again:
“I always thought I knew when the iPhone was invented, but now I’m not so sure anymore”
What the male character, the sender, is holding is a letter, an important delivery for the lady who occupies the chair in the painting. So obviously what Tim saw is a kind of pareidolia with what he knows better than anyone. But it is surprising that a letter folded over itself has such a dark color and That contour so similar to the bezels of a mobile phone.
Cover | Angela Weiss for AFP
An older version of this article was originally published on 02/07/2023.