Related Works (The Maid Asleep)

View of an Interior, or The Slippers

 

created: around 1658

This painting created by Samuel Van Hoogstraten is a subtly moralistic piece, a fascinating exercise in perspective, and a painting of poetic calm. This work was attributed to Samuel Van Hoogstraten even his other Works were complitely painted in a different way.

 

The Idle Servant

 

 created:  1655

This painting is created by Maes and it is complemented by the room beyond, where it is possible to see three figures sit at table. The painting is one of the earliest interior of its kind with a view into another room. This device was further developed in Delftin the work of de Hooch in the later 1650s and by Vermeer during his painting career. These painters may have been influenced by Carel Fabritius.

 

Melencolia I

Created: 1514

This great painting is a creation of the German Renaissance Master Albrecht Dürer. This painting is an allegorical composition which has become the subject of many interpretations. One of the most famous old master prints, it has sometimes been regarded as forming one of a conscious group of Meisterstiche with his Knight, Death and the Devil (1513).

Sources:

Jan Vermeer paintings prints reproduction, Retrieved 09:00 May 12, 2011, from  http://www.artunframed.com/jan_vermeer.htm

Essential Vermeer, Retrieved 10:54, May 10, 2011, from http://www.essentialvermeer.com/

Johannes Vermeer,Retrieved 12:00, May 10, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Vermeer

PPT on The Maid Asleep

This is the presentation I made in class

Vermeer’s “The Milkmaid”

With the purpose of showing you the presentation I did on Vermeer’s The Milkmaid,  I have decided to post it by by using Slidshare, the tool we learned to use last year. Hope you find it interesting!

Slide 2: Background

Johannes Vermeer  was a Dutch painter born in Delft on 31 October 1632. He specialized in exquisite, domestic interior scenes of middle class life. Vermeer was a slightly  successful genre painter in his lifetime. He seems never to have been particularly wealthy, leaving his wife and children in debt at his death, perhaps because he produced relatively few paintings.

Since that time, Vermeer’s reputation has grown, and he is now acknowledged as one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age.

Slide 3: Painting Technique

The Milkmaid, sometimes called The Kitchen Maid, is an oil-on-canvas painting of a “milkmaid”, in fact a domestic kitchen maid, by the Dutch painter. It is housed in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, which esteems it as “unquestionably one of the museum’s finest attractions”.

This painting has “perhaps, the most brilliant color scheme of his oeuvre”, says the Essential Vermeer website.

Slide 4

One of the distinctions of Vermeer’s palette, compared with his contemporaries, was his preference for the expensive natural ultramarine where other painters typically used the much cheaper azurite.

Along with the ultramarine, the lead-tin yellow is also a dominant color in an exceptionally luminous work. The white walls reflect the daylight with different intensities, displaying the effects of uneven textures on the plastered surfaces. The artist here used white lead, umber and charcoal black. Although the formula was widely known among Vermeer’s contemporary genre painters, “perhaps no artist more than Vermeer was able to use it so effectively”, according to the Essential Vermeer website.

The woman’s coarse features are painted with thick dabs of impasto. This technique consists on leaving the paint on an area of the surface very thickly.

The seeds on the crust of the bread, as well as the crust itself, along with the plaited handles of the bread basket, are rendered with dots. Soft parts of the bread are rendered with thin swirls of paint, with dabs of ochre used to show the rough edges of broken crust.

One piece of bread to the viewer’s right and close to the Dutch oven, has a broad band of yellow, different from the crust, which Cant believes is a suggestion that the piece is going stale.

The bread and basket, despite being closer to the viewer, are painted in a more diffuse way than the illusionistic realism of the wall, with its stains, shadowing, nail and nail hole, or the seams and fastenings of the woman’s dress, the gleaming, polished brass container hanging from the wall. The panes of glass in the window are varied in a very realistic way.

The woman’s bulky green oversleeves were painted with the same yellow and blue paint used in the rest of the woman’s clothing.

The brilliant blue of the skirt or apron has been intensified with a glaze (a thin, transparent top layer) of the same color.

Slide 5: What does the painting suggest?

Despite its traditional title, the picture clearly shows a maid   (a low-ranking servant) in a plain room carefully pouring milk into a container  on a table.

Also on the table are various types of bread.

She is a young, sturdily built woman wearing a linen cap, a blue apron and work sleeves pushed up from thick forearms.

The painting is strikingly illusionistic, conveying not just details but a sense of the weight of the woman and the table.  With half of the woman’s face in shadow, it is “impossible to tell whether her downcast eyes and pursed lips express wistfulness or concentration,” wrote Karen Rosenberg, an art critic for The New York Times.

“It’s a little bit of a Mona Lisa effect” in modern viewers’ reactions to the painting, according to Walter Liedtke, curator of the department of European paintings at The Museum of Modern Art, and organizer of two Vermeer exhibits. “There’s a bit of mystery about her for modern audiences. She is going about her daily task, faintly smiling. And our reaction is ‘What is she thinking?’”

Slide 6: Relationship Picture-Poem

In this last slide, I have analised the relationship between the picture of “The Milkmaid” and the poem that went with it in our books and we have been looking at in class with Claire:

The poet takes us back on time to what has been done. It is not a static moment in time.

The picture shows a rude woman, not a delicate or fine one. Everything she touches is hard, crude. There is no flattery at all.

She is holding the jug as if it were a baby, as if she were bathing him.

The maid is an earthy woman, not a delicate one, but she turns into kind of holly or precious when the light shines on her. Light transforms her actions onto something holly, full of grace and admirable.

References:

• Johannes Vermeer. Britannica. Retrieved: May 2, 2011 at 21:00 from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/626156/Johannes-Vermeer
• Johannes Vermeer. The Milkmaid. Retrieved. May 2, 2011 at 21:00 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Milkmaid_(Vermeer)
• Johannes Vermeer. Retrieved. May 2, 2011 at 21.00 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Vermeer
• Slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/
• English for Specific Purposes. Orange Book.

Some facts about “Diana and her Companions”

In this painting, Diana can only be recognised by the crescent moon she is wearing in her hair and by the hunting dog that is sitting next to her. Because of her characteristics as a goddess, she has also   been identified with Artemis   (goddess of the hunt, wild animals, wilderness and virginity; and she brought and relieved disease in women). As it can be seen in the picture below, both of them carry bows and arrows representing their nature as female hunters.

As for the nymphs, two of them are simply resting on the rock and another one is cleaning Diana’s feet using a brass water basin. This water basin has Christian undertones, since it may be suggesting that Diana is cleaning herself both physically and spiritually; even if some critics have also argued that it may be symbolising death. In addition, there is a fourth nymph who keeps herself apart and contemplates the scene from a certain distance, as if she were trying to hide something. She is Callisto, and what she is hiding is her own pregnancy, indeed. The problem is that when Diana chose her nymphs, she made them all take the vow of chastity. Obviously, Callisto broke it when she became pregnant. Diana is not aware of this issue in the scene, but the legend says that when she found out about Callisto’s pregnancy, Diana turned Callisto into a bear and expelled her from the court because she felt betrayed. Therefore, this is the reason why Callisto is dressed in black, and her dressing clearly contrasts the brightness on the foreground – which is emphasised by the women’s bright dresses – with the darkness on the background. As it can be noticed, there is nothing one can see on the background of the painting apart from a tree and absolute darkness.

Apart from that, it can be observed that Diana is placed in the middle of a circle created by the nymphs. The circularity of the painting is then conveying the idea of unity, balance and repose, at the same time that it suggests that the relationship between the goddess and her nymphs is quite close and comfortable. However, Diana has never been described as a relaxed goddess, but as the opposite. She is characterised by her bad temper and this is made evident in the moment when Actaeon breaks in. This is the true Diana, and not the one portrayed in this particular scene. She could have imagined that a masculine figure is about to appear though, since there is a thistle between her and the dog. This plant is the first that blooms in spring, and it also a symbol of masculinity. However, everything points at the fact that the goddess was not aware of this little detail, since her reaction may have been different if she knew that a man was going to interrupt her sacred moment. Unfortunately for him, Diana has also human characteristics, and this put an end to the hunter’s life.

References:

• Diana and her Companions. Essential Vermeer. Retrieved: May 11, 2011 at 15:30 from http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/diana_and_her_companions.html
• Johannes Vermeer. Britannica. Retrieved: May 11, 2011 at 15:36 from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/626156/Johannes-Vermeer
• The Greek Goddess Artemis. Goddessgift. Retrieved: May 11, 2011 at 16:00 from http://www.goddessgift.com/goddess-myths/greek_goddess_artemis.htm
• Actaeon. Encyclopedia Mythica. Retrieved: May 11, 2011 at 16:00 from http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/actaeon.html

A Girl Interrupted at her Music: Understanding the painting

As I mentioned in my last post, my new article will deal with the background against which A Girl Interrupted at her Music was created.  First of all, I would like to consider the issue of courtship.  Courtship was a very popular motif and Vermeer made use of it in several occasions. However, the facial expressions of the protagonists do not give us a clue of what they are thinking or feeling. Therefore, we have to draw our own conclusions.  Is this a scene depicting a scene of amorous courtship? Is this merely a music lesson?

The well-to-do Dutch had very well-furnished houses. Many included elements such as carved furniture, glassware, exotic carpets or porcelain. All of these elements can be observed in our painting, and that  conveys the idea that the lady and the cavalier belong to the haute bourgeoisie of the times. Englishmen used to say that the furniture was so clean and in good order that Dutch houses appeared to be designed for an exhibition rather than for a living space. The concept of the Dutch room will be referenced back when analyzing the painting in upcoming articles.

In the 17th century, the association between music and love was a metaphor for an amorous relationship. In fact, music-making  was one of the activities which permitted young people to freely associate with each other without the presence of parents or older guardians. On the table, there lies a cittern, one of the most popular instruments of the 17th century and also one of the most frequenly depicted by Vermeer. A cittern sounds a bit like the virginal and it was used for accompanying the singing voice or for dancing music. The people Vermeer chose to represent would have ideally belonged to the haute bourgeoisie, who normally collected songbooks, one of which can be observed on the table. Songbooks played an important role in modern courtship. For instance, young musicians had a vast choice of foreign and local songbooks, which were called liedboeken or collections of love songs. These books frequently reflected the local culture containing references to favourite meeting places for lovers, taverns and so on and so forth.

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Until the 1630s, outdoor garden parties where young men and women caroused playfully had been a very popular motif. This can be observed in The Garden Party by Jan Steen, a contemporary of Vermeer. However, the key innovator, Willem Buytewech lost interest in this successful garden motif and decided to bring people indoors. He depicted the haute bourgeoisie as surrounded by luxury furnishings and decorative items such as wall maps. This is the trend that Vermeer will follow in order to create his famous interiors.

The last topic I would like to point out, is the fact that Vermeer inspires himself. A Girl Interrupted at her Music shares much with The Glass of Wine: both portray a gentleman attending a young lady in a moment of courtship, and the position of the couple is more or less the same.

Apart from getting inspiration from his own work, Vermeer also inspired his famous artpieces on painters such as Van Mieris or Metsu, also his contemporaries, and who also depicted scenes of courtship.

Now that we know a little more about the background that surrounded Vermeer and his creations, I will move on to consider, in my next article, the most outstanding elements or details found in A Girl Interrupted at her Music.

Ariane Sande

References:

• Understanding A Girl Interrupted at her Music. (2010,2011). In Essential Vermeer. Retrieved February 19, 2011, from:  http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/girl_interrupted_in_her_music.html.

A Girl Interrupted at her Music: Introduction to the painting

The painting I have been analyzing and working on is entitled A Girl Interrupted at her Music. In this first article I will provide you with a first approach to one of Johannes Vermeer’s most enigmatic but damaged pictorial artpieces; a brief yet useful introduction if you are interested in this particular painting.

A Girl Interrupted at her Music was painted in the Dutch Baroque style, using oil on canvas, as most of Vermeer’s other artpieces. Some scholars agree that it was painted between the years 1658 and 1659, and some others agree that, on the contrary, it was painted between the years 1660 and 1661. Nowadays, A Girl Interrupted at her Music, although it is very damaged, is part of the Frick Collection of New York.

On the right-hand side you can admire how the picture looks like with its original frame, and on the left-hand side I attempted to show you how big the painting is. I must confess my surprise when I took a look for the first time at the actual dimensions of this Vermeer, since, I thought it was much larger than it really is.

Now that we know the necessary and most relevant data about this painting, in my next article I will focus on the background against which this painting was created. See you all soon.
References:

• First approach toA Girl Interrupted at her Music. (2010, December 18). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:32, March 15, 2011, from:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Interrupted_at_her_Music.
• Understanding A Girl Interrupted at her Music. (2010,2011). In Essential Vermeer. Retrieved February 19, 2011, from:  http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/girl_interrupted_in_her_music.html.

Ariane Sande

The Little Street

The Little Street (1657-1658)

As we all know, this painting is called The Little Street and it was drawn between 1657 and 1661 by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. It is an oil painting which size is 54 x 44 cms and it can be contemplated at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (Dutchland).

In this picture it is portrayed a nice view of Delft and the curiosity is that this is the only outdoors painting that Vermeer created. Maybe, this is not what we would have expected from him taking into account that he used to portray usual scenes that take place in a room. Precisely for this reason I chose this picture to analyze.

It is considered that this picture, though it has nothing, it is full of little and simple details that make this picture so especial. And this is what cought my attention from first sight. I see it completely different from the others because the other pictures contain always the same form: women in their daily routine, doing their labours, almost with the same face expression one and anothers. I thought I would not take anything new from my classmates would. The thing is that this painting makes me see and feel something especial; something different. And this is why I want to write about The Little Street.

As I have said before, The Little Street is different because we are used to see pictures where the main feature is a woman in a room doing a daily activity, and this is something different from what we usually from Vermeer. However, it maintains the essence of Vermeer: he freezes a determined moment in the daily life of Dutch ordinary people. In fact, he reaches his aim to be like that.

This Little Street belongs to Delft; the Dutch city where Johannes Vermeer lived. This street could have been any street in a 17th-century Dutch town: there is a woman pouring the water in the gutter, there are children playing in the street near their house (it is supposed that their parents will want them to be near in order to be visible and not get lost), and there is another woman who is sewing. These actions are the one that make The Little Street be different from the other pictures painted by Vermeer. How such simple and daily activities make the picture be full of this especial spell; charm. Johannes Vermeer had the particular ability to transform simple behaviours and actions into especial and immortal moments full of beauty. This complex simplicity (though it sounds ironic) gives the reason why this picture is involved in an especial magic and charm and it gets to make me feel such a sense of calmness and inner peace when I look at it.

The Little Street framed

The Little Street was painted in “a fine support, plain weave linen, with a thread count or 14 x 14 per cm². The original tacking edges are present and marks from the original strainer bars are 3.5″ cm. from the edge on all sides. Of the two lining canvases one is probably attached with glue/ paste, the other with wax resin.

The gray ground visible along the silhouette of the right house and in parts of the brick façade contains umber, a little chalk and lead white. Coarse particles of lead white protrude through the thin paint layers of the facade and in the brown shadows. Along the left edge of the painting secondary cusping is evident.

The sky was underpainted with lead white, over which the chimneys on the v-shaped-roof line were painted. Azurite was used in the underpainting of the three upper windows, including sills and surrounds, of the right house, followed by a creamy yellow layer. The sequence of paint layers is reversed in the ground-floor windows of this house. The foliage was painted with an azurite and lead tin-yellow mixture, three different shades of an ultramarine and lead white mixture, and pure ultramarine.”

Details and technical information taken from Essential Vermeer official page.

* Technical Description on Johanness Vermeer’s The Little Street. (2010, May 1). In Essential Vermeer. Retriever 9.57, May 20, from http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/tech/tech_house.html