Goethe once said in The Theory of Color that blue is "both exhilarating and tranquil", and paul Cézanne, the father of modern painting, said that "blue resonates with other colors", and the unique properties of blue have made people obsessed with it since ancient times. It is reminiscent of the sky, the ocean, the water and the universe; it represents purity, reason, serenity, vastness and melancholy, and it is a symbol of spirituality in the hearts of many artists. There are many artists who are obsessed with blue, and Vermeer is one of them, and in his paintings, girls or women are the spokesmen for blue.
Vermeer has only 36 surviving paintings, which are very few compared with the painters of the same period, but they have high artistic value. Vermeer's achievements are mainly in color, and his research and use of color is at its peak, and by looking at his living paintings, you can feel that the blue on the picture is very unique and timeless. Unlike the common colors such as red, black, and brown in ancient art, blue was a luxury in vermeer's time.
Among Vermeer's surviving works, the most well-known is this "Girl with Pearl Earrings".
The Girl with the Pearl Earring is an oil painting by the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer in the 1665s. It is one of johannes Vermeer's masterpieces. It is now in the collection of the Mauriates Royal Art Gallery in The Hague, The Netherlands.
This is a small oil painting, not much larger than the eight open paper, the oil paint has been dried up cracked, but it is such a seemingly inconspicuous small painting, but it makes many literati inkers, tourists and viewers want to go before the painting, what is shaking their hearts? It is the protagonist of the painting——— a girl wearing pearl earrings.
Painting Appreciation:
The stunning glimpse of the young girl in the painting seems to have absorbed the soul of the viewer. Vermeer used an all-black background in this painting, thus achieving a fairly strong three-dimensional effect. The black background sets off the charm of the girl's image, making her like a bright light in the darkness, dazzling. The girl in the painting is on her side, turning her head to stare at us, her lips slightly open, as if to say something. Her twinkling eyes showed eagerness, and her head tilted slightly to the left, as if lost in a thousand thoughts. The girl wears an unpretentious brown tunic with a white collar, a blue turban and a lemon-colored turban that hangs down.
Vermeer used mundane, simple colors and a limited range of tones in his paintings, and then used varnish to achieve the effect of layers and shadows. Another eye-catching feature of this painting is a teardrop-shaped pearl earring worn by the girl's left ear, which seems to loom in the shadow of the girl's neck, which is the finishing touch of the whole painting. Pearls are often a symbol of chastity in Vermeer's paintings, and some critics believe that the painting was probably made on the eve of the marriage of a young girl.
The temperament of the young girl in the painting is extraordinary, and she stares at the painter and also stares at us without distraction. When admiring this painting, the viewer will easily melt into the gaze of this vein, and forget both things. The Dutch art critic Goschyed considered it Vermeer's finest work, the "Mona Lisa of the North". The charm of "Mona Lisa's Smile" lies in her mystery, no one knows why this woman can exude such a quiet smile, and in what mood the painter painted such a work.
About the Author:
Vermeer (1632--1675), a master painter who was obliterated for two centuries after his death, was the third most important representative of Dutch painting in the seventeenth century. In the seventeenth century, the Netherlands was a powerful country in Europe's economic prosperity, and culture and art were quite developed, producing Hals and Rembrandt, which occupied a special position in the history of European art.
Vermeer was the only one who succeeded Hals and Rembrandt in the mid-seventeenth century. At a time when Dutch culture and art were gradually losing their democratic traditions, the Dutch city of Delft became an advanced art center, and Johannes. Vermeer was born in this city and lived there. However, although this great painter was known before his death, he was destitute and in debt, and just when he was young and strong, he passed away and lived only 43 years. Forgotten after his death, he was not rediscovered by art critics until the mid-nineteenth century, and his reputation grew and he was given the status he deserved. He was known as the "Sphinx who had been sleeping for two centuries" and was a "painter of mysteries".
Colors in the painting:
The white pigment for the earrings comes from the Peak District in northern England, and the blue color on the girl's headscarf is ground from lapis lazuli found in present-day Afghanistan, and the red color is cochineal, made from bugs on cactus plants that live in Mexico and South America.
Blue is a pigment that is more precious than gold. Because the ore used to make pigments was originally produced only in the mountains of northern Afghanistan, Italian merchants traveled thousands of miles to transport it from Afghanistan to Europe by sea, so blue became the most expensive pigment in the Renaissance.
Rough
The high price gave the pigment a unique symbolic meaning, and was often used to paint the robes of the Virgin Mary, but Vermeer's use of ultramarines could be said to be costless, using the blue color that was originally only available for the clothes of the Virgin, and painting the most extravagant tablecloths of the era, the aprons of the maids, the dresses of the women, and the weaving carpets. Vermeer liberated blue from the sacred symbol and incorporated it into daily life, but the efficiency of painting was inefficient, and the slow work was so small that it was in debt.
Today, the girl in the painting still greets tourists from all over the world with her mysterious and charming smile, and no matter how time passes, people will still remember the pure and charming girl.