Jan Vermeer (Johannes Vermeer), Delft 1632 - 1675
Allegorie des katholischen Glaubens / Allegory of the Catholic Faith (ca. 1670 - 72)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
In this atypical painting the artist employed a more abstractive style to suit the intellectual subject. The emotive figure of Faith with "the world at her feet" (according to Ripa’s compendium of allegories) casts her eyes to Heaven, symbolized by a glass sphere. On the floor, the apple of Original Sin sits near a serpent, representing Satan, who is crushed by Christ, the "cornerstone" of the church. The room, revealed behind a Flemish tapestry, looks like a chapel set up in a private house. Vermeer, who converted to Catholicism in order to marry, probably refers to the "hidden churches" where Catholics worshiped in the officially Protestant Dutch Republic.
Source: MET
Tags: Jan Vermeer Johannes Vermeer Allegorie des katholischen Glaubens Allegory of the Catholic Faith Metropolitan Museum of Art New York
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Jan Vermeer (Johannes Vermeer), Delft 1632 - 1675
Ansicht von Delft / View of Delft (1660/61)
Mauritshuis, Den Haag, Niederlande
Tags: Jan Vermeeer Johannes Vermeer Ansicht von Delft View of Delft Mauritshuis Den Haag Niederlande Netherlands Nederland
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Jan Vermeer (Johannes Vermeer), Delft 1632 – 1675
Die Kupplerin – The Procuress (1656)
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister / Old Masters‘ Gallery, Dresden
The Procuress (Dutch: De koppelaarster) is a 1656 oil-on-canvas painting by the then 24-year-old Johannes Vermeer. It is his first genre painting and shows a scene of contemporary life, an image of mercenary love perhaps in a brothel. It differs from his earlier biblical and mythological scenes. It is one of only three paintings Vermeer signed and dated. In 1696 the painting, being sold on an auction in Amsterdam, was named "A merry company in a room".
The woman in black, the leering coupler, "in a nun's costume", could be the eponymous procuress, while the man to her right, "wearing a black beret and a doublet with slashed sleeves" has been identified as a self portrait of the artist.
It seems Vermeer was influenced by earlier works on the same subject by Gerard ter Borch, and The Procuress by Dirck van Baburen, which was owned by Vermeer's mother-in-law Maria Thins and hung in her home. Some critics thought the painting is atypical of Vermeer's style and expression, because it lacks the typical light. Pieter Swillens wrote in 1950 that - if the work was by Vermeer at all - it showed the artist "seeking and groping" to find a suitable mode of expression. Eduard Trautscholdt wrote 10 years before that "The temperament of the 24-year-old Vermeer fully emerges for the first time".
The three-dimensional jug on the oriental rug is a piece of Westerwald Pottery. The kelim thrown over a bannister, probably produced in Uşak, covers a third of the painting and shows medaillons and leaves.The instrument is probably a cittern. The dark coat with five buttons was added by Vermeer in a later stage. The man, a soldier, in the red jacket is fondling the young woman's breast and dropping a coin into her outstretched hand.
According to Benjamin Binstock this "dark and gloomy" painting could be understood as a psychological portrait of his adopted family and does not represent a didactic message. In his rather fictional book Binstock explains Vermeer used his family as models; the procuress could be Vermeer's wife Catherina and the lewd soldier her brother Willem .
Source: Wikipedia
Tags: Jan Vermeer Johannes Vermeer Bei der Kupplerin The procuress Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Old Masters' Gallery Dresden Sachsen Saxony Deutschland Germany
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Jan Vermeer (Johannes Vermeer), Delft 1632 - 1675
Brieflesende Frau in Blau / Woman in blue reading a Letter (1663)
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Enjoying a quiet, private moment, this young woman is absorbed in reading a letter in the morning light. She is still wearing her blue night jacket. All of the colours in the composition are secondary to its radiant lapis lazuli blue. Vermeer recorded the effects of light with extraordinary precision. Particularly innovative is his rendering of the woman’s skin with pale grey, and the shadows on the wall using light blue.
Source: Rijksmuseum
Tags: Jan Vermeer Johannes Vermeer Brieflesende Frau in Blau Woman in blue reading a Letter Rijksmuseum Amsterdam Niederlande The Netherlands Nederland
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Jan Vermeer (Johannes Vermeer), Delft 1632 - 1675
Brieflesendes Mädchen am offenen Fenster / Girl Reading a Letter at an open Window (1657)
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden
Acquired in 1724 by August III, elector of Saxony, together with a number of other paintings bought in Paris. The seller threw in the picture as a present, to sweeten the deal. It was then attributed to Rembrandt, and the ascription was subsequently weakened to "manner" or "school of." In 1783, it was engraved as a work by Govaert Flinck. The name "Van der Meer from Delft" occurred for the first time in a catalog dating from 1806, to be changed back to Flinck in 1817. From 1826 to 1860, the appellation was altered to Pieter de Hooch. It is only since 1862 that the correct identification obtains. The only Dutch provenance that could possibly apply is the sale Pieter van der Lip, Amsterdam, 1712, no. 22, "A Woman Reading in a Room, by van der Meer of Delft fl 110." Unfortunately, the text is not specific enough to distinguish it from the one at the Rijksmuseum, Woman in Blue Reading a Letter.
The above underlines the difficulties inherent to the establishment of Vermeer's catalog. Not a single work can be traced back to the painter's studio, nor are there any letters or contracts extant. The task of attribution rests squarely upon the shoulders of the individual critic, which explains the multiplicity of divergent opinions. In this painting, a young woman stands in the center of the composition, facing in profile an open window to the left. In the foreground is a table covered with the same Oriental rug encountered in the Woman Asleep. On it is the identical Delft plate with fruit. The window reflects the girl's features, while to the right the large green curtain forms a deceptive frame. She is precisely silhouetted against a bare wall that reflects the light and envelops her in its luminosity.
We are here confronted with one of the salient aspects of Vermeer's sensibility and originality. It is the stillness that stands out, the inner absorption, the remoteness from the outer world. She concentrates entirely upon the letter, holding it firmly and tautly, while she absorbs its content with utmost attention.
In the technique, the artist avows again Rembrandtesque derivation. He paints in small fatty dabs to model the forms, and obtains the desired effects by means of impasto highlights opposed to the deeper tonalities - just as the master from Leyden was wont to do. The painting is relatively large, and the smallness of the figure as opposed to its surroundings stresses immateriality and depersonalization. Vermeer considerably changed the composition in the course of execution.
Much has been written about the trompe-l'oeil effect of the curtain. It is a pictorial artifice used by many other Dutch masters and in keeping with an old European tradition. Rembrandt, Gerard Dou, Nicolaes Maes, and many still-life and even landscape painters made use of such curtains as a means of simulating effects that now seem theatrical. The light background can be found in many paintings by Carel Fabritius, the Goldfinch from 1654 at the Mauritshuis in The Hague being the most famous example.
Source: Web Gallery of Art
Tags: Jan Vermeeer Johannes Vermeer Brieflesendes Mädchen am offenen Fenster Girl Reading a Letter at an open Window Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Dresden Niederlande The Netherlands Nederland Sachsen Saxony Deutschland Germany
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