Last link to paint made in Vermeer's day can be traced to Dutch windmill

A photograph shows smashed Lapis Lazuli blue pigment at the Rijksmuseum's drawing school in Amsterdam as part of an explanation focused on the way paint was made in the 17th century including by Dutch Masters such as Rembrandt and Vermeer. Photo: AFP

Every morning for the last 42 years, Piet Kempenaar has cast a careful eye over the Dutch sky before releasing a brake and "steering" the giant blades of his centuries-old mill into the wind.

To match the force, he adjusts the sails of De Kat (The Cat), the world's last remaining mill using wind power to crush rocks into fine dust and make paint pigment - just as it was done almost 400 years ago.