Johannes Vermeer II
1:35 p.m.
The Little Street, by Johannes Vermeer (c.1659 – 60)
Technique: oil on canvas / Measures: 54.3 x 44 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
12/12/16 - In "The Milk Maid", Vermeer showed us his great
skill to suggest surfaces and textures. It's what also happens with "The Little Street", a street view with a facade occupying most of the canvas.
The bricks looked as if altered by time and weather, as also the paving stones.
Special attention was placed in the details of the windows. All this was
achieved by modulation and contrasting of color tones, applied with depth and
density.
At first sight the artworks seems to have a perfect symmetry, but according to Franits, a thorough study will prove us wrong. The scale is forced and the windows to the right were intentionally cut to intensify the structures depicted and create monumentality to the scene.
At first sight the artworks seems to have a perfect symmetry, but according to Franits, a thorough study will prove us wrong. The scale is forced and the windows to the right were intentionally cut to intensify the structures depicted and create monumentality to the scene.
View of Delft, by Johannes Vermeer (c.1660 – 1)
Technique: oil on canvas / Measures: 96.5 x 115.7 cm
Mauritshuis, The Hague
"View of Delft" was painted a year after "The
Little Street" and it's Vermeer largest painting. The saturated light, the
vivid colors and intense effects back up P.T.A. Swillens' 1950 theory,
according to which Vermeer used a camera obscura. Leaving aside all of
Vermeer's artistic licenses to create those visual effects, "View of
Delft" is an extraordinary document of the way the city looked back in the 17th
century, even though the artist chose a quiet moment and not the busiest time
of day at the comercial port.
(To be continued... )
Keep reading... "Vermeer", by Wayne Franits. Phaidon, London, 2015.
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