Jan Vermeer (31 October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a 17th-century Dutch painter who, like Rembrandt, was known as the greatest painter of the Dutch Golden Age, with transparent colors, rigorous compositions, and an ingenious use of light and shadow in his work. Vermeer Vermeer delicately depicts a limited space, beautifully showing the light and shadow effects of the object itself, the realism and texture of the characters.
The master of dutch painting in the golden age, together with Hals and Rembrandt, is known as the three major painters in the Netherlands. Vermeer was one of the greatest Dutch painters, but it was forgotten for two centuries. Most of Vermeer's works are paintings of genre themes, basically based on the ordinary life of the citizens. The whole picture of his painting is warm, comfortable and quiet, giving people a solemn feeling, fully showing the Dutch citizens' preference for a clean environment and an elegant and comfortable atmosphere. He is also unique in his artistic style, his paintings are sturdy, exquisite in structure, bright and harmonious in color, and are especially good at expressing the sense of light and space in the room. Vermeer's paintings give a sense of authenticity, in addition to the reality of everyday life, a sense of faith realism.
Girl with Pearl Earrings, circa 1660-65, oil on canvas, 46.5 x 40 cm, Royal Musee Moretes, The Hague Vermeer's works
She turned us only for a second, just enough for us to remember what she looked like, and only enough to let us know what a unique picture it was, and in a sense, it wasn't meant for us to see. At the moment when she turned her head, the girl looked at us, and so did. We don't even know who she is. Of course, in the future, we may be able to imagine an entire novel, extrapolating the whole life from this mysterious apparition, but this has not happened yet. At this point, the picture creates a rare feeling: overwhelmed.
Thus, the question of the model's identity is not important, but her unknown name is rather comfortable: even a simple name can make us think about it and relate it to history, or at least to someone's particular history. But what we have in mind is not a portrait, but a face painted by Vermeer, a face that is completely at ease and self-contained, unconnected with anything else. Nothing matters, except what we see here and now. Life outside of painting can be left behind for a while.
If there is a slight concern between truth and reality, it is not because we have entered the world of dreams, but because the picture allows us to see that it is a sublimation of reality and dissipates daily experience. This encounter is one in nowhere, without any precursors and consequences, simple and direct, unexpected, clear and clear, just like before, those thoughts that weighed on our hearts, now there is no trace, and they will appear later. We can breathe a sigh of relief, because we don't have to go to great lengths and rack our brains to think about the possible meaning of the painting, and we will certainly do it elsewhere. The painting interrupts our thoughts. It rewrites the order of nature, as if time could slow down enough for us to grasp something, something that would have passed through our hands in the past.
Vermeer's paintings can put together all the things that conflict with themselves. Conflicting behavior often makes some of us feel divided or forward-looking; what we are present now is a real picture, but the opposite of everything we know. The black background, often used in religious works, now shows the eternity of the picture. With the shoulder as the boundary, this model girl wants to get rid of any connection with the world, and then she will completely ignore the existence of the world.
Even so, the painting seemed to be about to move, and the girl's face seemed to hang in the air, encircling a layer of brilliance, but this brilliance did not reflect more details of the facial features. Their outlines are still blurred, not because we can't see them, but because time hasn't left its mark on them yet. All we can remember is their perfection, their symmetry, and their indifference. The painting looks new, as if it has not been affected in any way. The woman did not pass. She is here, determined to distance herself from everything, including the passage of time, and she will always be young.
Her lips were slightly open and she was about to speak. Or maybe we're too presumptuous and there's nothing to prove it. It was probably her natural expression. We don't know if a word had just crossed her lips, or if that was the way she was used to looking on her face. The air begins to flow through the frame, and it is she who breathes. Just one breath. If we had to describe it in detail, we might say it was pink, like the whole lips and soft cheeks. This warm picture.
The girl wears heavy pearl earrings, does it hint at the girl's frivolous past? It's not just a symbolic accessory, nor can it be just a decoration to show off to others. It is of great significance in itself: this natural creation, transparent and pure, is the union of light and geometry. The picture unfolds around the pearl, as if it were the nucleus of an atom. Vermeer treats light like an architect, pearls are his plumb threads, and wrinkles on the maiden's turban are grooves in the pillars.
The large blocks of color give this picture its own sense of structure. The contact between the brush and the canvas is not wide open, but there is no hidden edge; there is infinite subtlety everywhere in the picture, shaping their underlying structure. While the girl is depicted, she is also sculpted. Her face was a pearl. The magic of Vermeer's portraits is also reflected in two main colors: blue and yellow; these two colors are found in most of his paintings. When the performance allows people to see the light of the world, these two colors are equally intense. But they are opposite to each other, and the world is divided into opposites by them, and this division is completed at the beginning of time; the separation of light and darkness, which speaks of in Genesis, may be used to mark the establishment of the fundamental opposition between black and white. But in the human world, in the world of the earth and the four seasons, in a world where every minute and every second moves forward and time is constantly changing, absolute colors and principles take on more nuanced forms, and different colors evolve with subtleties that are difficult to detect. Blue, cool tones, reminiscent of the vast expanse of the sky, suggesting that it is impossible to reach. Apparently, it inhabits an untouchable world. We cannot possess the blue thing, we can only gaze, knowing that although it is here, it is difficult to touch. From the dawn to the nightfall, it covers all the shadows until it sinks into darkness. As for the yellow, it radiates the power of the sun, transmitting heat and light and the energy of a new beginning. When the two merge into one, yellow and blue produce green, and all the landscapes of the world are born in it.
There are small yellow spots in the blue of the girl's turban, and small pieces of blue on the yellow cloth are like small pieces of ice. But the two colors were never mixed. Time stops moving forward. The maiden stood in the space that had been miraculously preserved, and green had not yet been born from it. History is at a standstill, and it is reinventing itself.
"The Girl with the Pearl Earring" is a mysterious work. The thick blackness in the background of the painting, as well as the bright female lonely shadow that appears impressively, like Vermeer's painting method, is the only one that exists in his works. This painting, like most of his portraits, does not recognize who it is. Vermeer was a painter completely different from Rembrandt, with a long, fluid brushwork and much more delicate brushwork.
The shape of the girl's head is thick and powerful, especially in the drawing method, which also uses the effect of chiaroscuro, and the girl with pearl earrings has the characteristics of Rembrandt's handwriting. In the final analysis, this point comes from caravaggio, the great reformer of painting art, and caravaggio's legacy can undoubtedly be seen in Vermeer's earliest works.
The light in the painting is concentrated on the blue scarf and face of the girl, which can be seen in the brush strokes of all the painters who have been influenced by Caravaggio, including the three heroes of the seventeenth century: Rembrandt, Velázquez, and Rubens. Vermeer vividly outlined the delicate face of the girl, the wetness of her lips, the thin line that extended from the collar to the neck, and the eyes of the water spirit.
Her bright gaze implies eagerness, and she bluntly summons the viewer outside the painting, and one will think of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, but in the painting here, there is no mystery in the Renaissance masterpiece.
The Girl with the Red Riding Hood an appreciation of Vermeer's works
"The Girl with the Red Riding Hood" has no excitement, no classical European love fantasies, some are just calm. The innocence and beauty of the heart as quiet as water has been vividly exerted under the painter's pen. The red and dark backgrounds, the faces of girls intersecting light and dark, and the full composition reflect the specific subject matter requirements of genre painting. This work, under the premise of skillful skill, has become a work of spiritual significance.