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Delft
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Delft is a city and a municipality in the Netherlands. It is located in the province of South Holland, to the north of Rotterdam, the city of Delft came into being aside a canal, the Delf, which comes from the word delven, meaning delving or digging, and led to the name Delft. It presumably started around the 11th century as a landlord court, from a rural village in the early Middle Ages, Delft developed to a city, that in the 13th century received its charter. The towns association with the House of Orange started when William of Orange, nicknamed William the Silent, at the time he was the leader of growing national Dutch resistance against Spanish occupation, known as the Eighty Years War. By then Delft was one of the cities of Holland. An attack by Spanish forces in October of that year was repelled, after the Act of Abjuration was proclaimed in 1581, Delft became the de facto capital of the newly independent Netherlands, as the seat of the Prince of Orange. When William was shot dead in 1584, by Balthazar Gerards in the hall of the Prinsenhof, therefore, he was buried in the Delft Nieuwe Kerk, starting a tradition for the House of Orange that has continued to the present day. The Delft Explosion, also known in history as the Delft Thunderclap, occurred on 12 October 1654 when a gunpowder store exploded, over a hundred people were killed and thousands were wounded. About 30 tonnes of gunpowder were stored in barrels in a magazine in a former Clarissen convent in the Doelenkwartier district, cornelis Soetens, the keeper of the magazine, opened the store to check a sample of the powder and a huge explosion followed. Luckily, many citizens were away, visiting a market in Schiedam or a fair in The Hague, Delft artist Egbert van der Poel painted several pictures of Delft showing the devastation. Historical buildings and other sights of interest include, Oude Kerk, buried here, Piet Hein, Johannes Vermeer, Anthony van Leeuwenhoek. Nieuwe Kerk, constructed between 1381 and 1496 and it contains the Dutch royal familys burial vault, which between funerals is sealed with a 5,000 kg cover stone. A statue of Hugo Grotius made by Franciscus Leonardus Stracké in 1886 and this is the only remaining gate of the old city walls. The Gemeenlandshuis Delfland, or Huyterhuis, built in 1505, which has housed the Delfland regional water authority since 1645, the Vermeer Centre in the rebuilt Guild house of St. Luke. Windmill De Roos, a mill built c.1760. Restored to working order in 2013, another windmill that formerly stood in Delft, Het Fortuyn, was dismantled in 1917 and re-erected at the Netherlands Open Air Museum, Arnhem, Gelderland in 1920. Delft is well known for the Delft pottery ceramic products which were styled on the imported Chinese porcelain of the 17th century, the city had an early start in this area since it was a home port of the Dutch East India Company. It can still be seen at the pottery factories De Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles, the painter Johannes Vermeer was born in Delft
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Johannes Vermeer
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Johannes, Jan or Johan Vermeer was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. Vermeer was a successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime. He evidently was not wealthy, leaving his wife and children in debt at his death, Vermeer worked slowly and with great care, and frequently used very expensive pigments. He is particularly renowned for his treatment and use of light in his work. Vermeer painted mostly domestic interior scenes and he was recognized during his lifetime in Delft and The Hague, but his modest celebrity gave way to obscurity after his death. He was barely mentioned in Arnold Houbrakens major source book on 17th-century Dutch painting, since that time, Vermeers reputation has grown, and he is now acknowledged as one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Relatively little was known about Vermeers life until recently and he seems to have been devoted exclusively to his art, living out his life in the city of Delft. Until the 19th century, the sources of information were some registers, a few official documents. John Michael Montias added details on the family from the city archives of Delft in his Artists and Artisans in Delft, Johannes Vermeer was baptized in the Reformed Church on 31 October 1632. His father Reijnier Janszoon was a worker of silk or caffa. As an apprentice in Amsterdam, Reijnier lived on fashionable Sint Antoniesbreestraat, in 1615, he married Digna Baltus. The couple moved to Delft and had a daughter named Geertruy who was baptized in 1620, in 1625, Reijnier was involved in a fight with a soldier named Willem van Bylandt who died from his wounds five months later. Around this time, Reijnier began dealing in paintings, in 1631, he leased an inn, which he called The Flying Fox. In 1635, he lived on Voldersgracht 25 or 26, in 1641, he bought a larger inn on the market square, named after the Flemish town Mechelen. The acquisition of the inn constituted a financial burden. When Vermeers father died in October 1652, Vermeer took over the operation of the art business. In April 1653, Johannes Reijniersz Vermeer married a Catholic girl, the blessing took place in the quiet nearby village of Schipluiden. Vermeers new mother-in-law Maria Thins was significantly wealthier than he, according to art historian Walter Liedtke, Vermeers conversion seems to have been made with conviction
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Simon de Vlieger
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Simon de Vlieger was a Dutch designer, draughtsman, and painter, most famous for his marine paintings. In the 1630s and 1640s he was one of the best-known Dutch maritime painters and he painted ships in harbour and at sea as well as storms and shipwrecks. In addition to painting, he designed tapestries, etchings, stained windows for the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam. His pupils included Willem van de Velde, the younger, Adriaen van de Velde, Jan van der Cappelle in fact owned 9 original De Vlieger paintings, and more than 1300 prints. When de Vleiger died in 1653, there were a number of unfinished and his work was highly influential on the younger generation of maritime painters
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Girl with a Pearl Earring (film)
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Girl with a Pearl Earring is a 2003 drama film directed by Peter Webber. The screenplay was adapted by screenwriter Olivia Hetreed, based on the novel of the name by Tracy Chevalier. Other cast members include Tom Wilkinson, Cillian Murphy, and Judy Parfitt, Hetreed read the novel before its publication, and her husbands production company convinced Chevalier to sell the film rights. Initially, the production was to feature Kate Hudson as Griet with Mike Newell directing, Hudson withdrew shortly before filming began, however, and the film was placed in hiatus until the hire of Webber, who re-initiated the casting process. In this, which was his film debut, Webber sought to avoid employing traditional characteristics of the period film drama. Cinematographer Eduardo Serra used distinctive lighting and colour similar to Vermeers paintings. Released on 12 December 2003 in North America and on 16 January 2004 in the United Kingdom and it garnered a mostly positive critical reception, with a 72% approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes. Critics generally applauded the films visuals and performances while questioning elements of its story, the film was subsequently nominated for ten British Academy Film Awards, three Academy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. Griet is a shy girl living in the Dutch Republic in 1665 and her father, a Delftware painter, has recently gone blind, rendering him unable to work and putting his family in a precarious financial situation. To help matters, Griet is sent to work as a maid in the household of famed painter Johannes Vermeer, Griet works hard, almost wordlessly, in the lowest position in a harsh hierarchy, doing her best despite spiteful treatment by one of Vermeers children. While she is on a shopping trip outside the house. As Griet cleans Vermeers studio, which his wife Catharina never enters, in contrast, Vermeers pragmatic mother-in-law, Maria Thins, sees Griet as useful to Vermeers career. Vermeers rich patron, Van Ruijven, notices Griet on a visit to the Vermeer household and asks the painter if he will give her up to work in his own house, Vermeer refuses, but accepts a commission to paint a portrait of Griet for Van Ruijven. As Vermeer secretly works on the painting, Catharina cannot help but notice something is amiss. As Griet deals with her growing fascination with Vermeer and his talent, soon afterwards, Catharinas mother summons Griet, hands over her daughters pearl earrings, and instructs Griet to finish the painting while Catharina is away for the day. At the final painting session Vermeer pierces Griets earlobe so she can wear one of the earrings for the portrait. They caress and make love in a barn, afterwards, Pieter proposes marriage, but unexpectedly leaves. She then returns the earrings to Catharinas mother, Catharina discovers that Griet used her earrings, accuses her mother of complicity, and demands Vermeer show her the painting of Griet
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The Art of Painting
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The Art of Painting, also known as The Allegory of Painting, or Painter in his Studio, is a 17th-century oil on canvas painting by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. It is owned by the Austrian Republic and is on display in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and this illusionistic painting is one of Vermeers most famous. In 1868 Thoré-Bürger, known today for his rediscovery of the work of painter Johannes Vermeer, svetlana Alpers describes it as unique and ambitious, Walter Liedtke as a virtuoso display of the artists power of invention and execution, staged in an imaginary version of his studio. According to Albert Blankert No other painting so flawlessly integrates naturalistic technique, brightly illuminated space, many art historians think that it is an allegory of painting, hence the alternative title of the painting. Its composition and iconography make it the most complex Vermeer work of all, the painting depicts an artist painting a woman dressed in blue posing as a model in his studio. The subject is standing by a window and a map of the Low Countries hangs on the wall behind. It is signed to the right of the girl I Ver, most experts assume it was executed sometime between 1665/1668, but some suggest the work could have been created as late as 1670–1675. In 1663 Vermeer had been visited by Balthasar de Monconys, but had no painting to show, Vermeer obviously liked the painting, he never sold it during his lifetime. According to Alpers it stands as a kind of summary and assessment of what has been done, the painting has only two figures, the painter and his subject, a woman with downcast eyes. The painter was thought to be a self-portrait of the artist, the painter sits in front of the painting on the easel, where you can see the sketch of the crown. He is dressed in an elegant black garment with cuts on the sleeves and he has short puffy breeches and orange stockings, an expensive and fashionable garment that is also found in other works of the time, as in a well-known self-portrait by Rubens. The tapestry and the chair, both repoussoirs, lead the viewer into the painting, as in The Allegory of Faith the ceiling can be seen. Experts attribute symbols to various aspects of the painting, the representation of the marble tiled floor and the splendid golden chandelier are examples of Vermeers craftsmanship and show his knowledge of perspective. Each object reflects or absorbs light differently, getting the most accurate rendering of material effects, the map, remarkable is the representation of light on it, shows the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands, flanked by 20 views of prominent Dutch cities. It was published by Claes Janszoon Visscher in 1636 and this map, but without the city views on the left and right can be seen on paintings by Jacob Ochtervelt and Nicolaes Maes. Similar maps were found in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris and in the Swedish Skokloster. In the top left of the map two women can be seen, one bearing a cross-staff and compasses, while the other has a palette, brush, Vermeer had a theoretical interest for painting. However, according to Ripa History should look back and not down as in this painting, following Vermeers contemporary Gerard de Lairesse, interested in French Classicism and Ripa, there is another explanation, he mentions history and poetry as the main resources of a painter
6.
Diana and Her Companions
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Diana and Her Companions is a painting by Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer completed in the early to mid-1650s, now at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague. Although the exact year is unknown, the work may be the earliest painting of the artist still extant, with art historians placing it before Christ in the House of Martha and Mary. Rather than directly illustrating one of the moments in well-known episodes from myths about Diana. The theme of a woman in a private, reflective moment would grow stronger in Vermeers paintings as his career progressed, the painting depicts the Greek and Roman goddess Diana with four of her companions. She wears a loose fitting, yellow dress with a sash and, on her head. As she sits on a rock, a nymph washes her left foot, another, behind Diana, sits with her partially bare back to the viewer, a third nymph, sitting at Dianas left, holds her own left foot with her right hand. A fourth stands in the rear, somewhat apart from the rest of the group and facing them and the viewer at an angle, her eyes cast down, her fists in front of her. A dog sits in the lower left-hand corner near Diana, its back to the viewer as it faces the goddess, her attendants and, immediately in front of it, a thistle. Except for the woman whose face is turned away from the viewer, all of the other faces in the painting are to one degree or another in shadow. None of the look at each other, each seemingly absorbed in their own thoughts. In 1999-2000, when the painting underwent restoration work and was cleaned, numerous reproductions up to that time had included the blue sky. Restorers covered over the patch with foliage to approximate the original image, the canvas had also been trimmed, particularly on the right, where about 15 cm was removed. The painting is signed on the left, on the rock between the thistle and the dog. The canvas is a plain weave linen with a count of 14.3 by 10 per square centimeter. Vermeer first outlined the composition with dark brown brushwork (some of which shows through as pentimenti in the skirt of the woman washing Dianas foot, hairs on the dogs ear were scratched in with the handle of the artists brush. Paint has been lost in vertical lines left of the paintings center, according to Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. the painting has no visual precedent. Nor does the artist show Dianas hot temper or her reactions to those episodes. The goddesss ability as a huntress is not signalled by dead game or bows and arrows, even the dog is depicted as a gentle animal, not like the fast hounds normally seen in paintings of Diana
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The Geographer
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The Geographer is a painting created by Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer in 1668–1669, and is now in the collection of the Städelsches Kunstinstitut museum in Frankfurt, Germany. It is closely related to Vermeers The Astronomer, for using the same model in the same dress. A2017 study indicated that the canvas for the two came from the same bolt of material. This is one of three paintings Vermeer signed and dated. Details of the face are slightly blurred, suggesting movement. His eyes are narrowed, perhaps squinting in the sunlight or an indication of intense thinking, Carr asserts that the painting depicts a flash of inspiration or even revelation. The drawn curtain on the left and the position of the carpet on the table—pushed back—are both symbols of revelation. He grips a book as if hes about to snatch it up to corroborate his ideas, the globe was published in Amsterdam in 1618 by Jodocus Hondius. The globe is turned toward the Indian Ocean, where the Dutch East India Company was then active, Vermeer used an impasto technique to apply pointillé dots, not to indicate light reflected more strongly on certain points but to emphasize the dull ochre cartouche frame printed on the globe. Since the globe can be identified, we know the decorative cartouche includes a plea for information for future editions—reflecting the theme of revelation in the painting, the sea chart on the wall of all the Sea coasts of Europe has been identified as one published by Willem Jansz Blaeu. This accuracy indicates Vermeer had a source familiar with the profession, the Astronomer, which seems to form a pendant with this painting, shows a similar, sophisticated knowledge of cartographic instruments and books, and the same young man modeled for both. That man himself may have been the source of Vermeers correct display of surveying and geographical instruments, Wheelock and others assert the model/source was probably Anthonie van Leeuwenhoek, a contemporary of Vermeer who was also born in Delft. The families of men were in the textile business, and both families had a strong interest in science and optics. A microscopist, van Leeuwenhoek was described after his death as being so skilled in navigation, astronomy, mathematics, philosophy and that one can certainly place him with the most distinguished masteres of the art. Another image of van Leeuwenhoek about 20 years later shows a face and straight nose. At the time Vermeer painted the two works, the scientist would have been about 36 years old and he would have been actively studying for his examination for surveyor, which he passed on February 4,1669. There is no evidence for any kind of relationship between the two men during Vermeers lifetime, although in 1676, van Leeuwenhoek was appointed a trustee for Vermeers estate. The pose of the figure in Vermeers painting takes up precisely the position of Faust in Rembrandts famous etching, according to Lawrence Gowing, similar arrangements can be found in drawings by Nicolaes Maes
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The Milkmaid (Vermeer)
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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 artist Johannes Vermeer. It is now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the exact year of the paintings completion is unknown, with estimates varying by source. The Rijksmuseum estimates it as circa 1658, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, it was painted in about 1657 or 1658. The Essential Vermeer website gives a range of 1658–1661. Also on the table are various types of bread and she is a young, sturdily built woman wearing a crisp linen cap, a blue apron and work sleeves pushed up from thick forearms. A foot warmer is on the floor behind her, near Delft wall tiles depicting Cupid, intense light streams from the window on the left side of the canvas. The painting is strikingly illusionistic, conveying not just details but a sense of the weight of the woman, yet with half of the womans face in shadow, it is impossible to tell whether her downcast eyes and pursed lips express wistfulness or concentration, she wrote. Theres a bit of mystery about her for modern audiences and she is going about her daily task, faintly smiling. And our reaction is What is she thinking, some of the paintings were slyly suggestive, like The Milkmaid, others more coarsely so. Closer to Vermeers day, Nicolaes Maes painted several comic pictures now given titles such as The Lazy Servant, however by this time there was an alternative convention of painting women at work in the home as exemplars of Dutch domestic virtue, dealt with at length by Simon Schama. Vermeers painting is one of the examples of a maid treated in an empathetic and dignified way. Other painters in this tradition, such as Gerrit Dou, depicted attractive maids with symbolic objects such as jugs and various forms of game, milk also had lewd connotations, from the slang term melken, defined as to sexually attract or lure. Examples of works using milk this way include Lucas van Leydens engraving The Milkmaid and Jacques de Gheyn IIs engraving The Archer, other amorous symbols in the painting include a wide-mouthed jug, often used as a symbol of the female anatomy. The foot warmer was often used by artists as a symbol for sexual arousal because. Since other Dutch paintings of the period indicate that foot warmers were used when seated, its presence in the picture may symbolize the standing womans hardworking nature, in Dutch, Het Melkmeisje is the paintings most-used name. According to art historian Harry Rand, the painting suggests the woman is making bread pudding, which would account for the milk, Rand assumed she would have already made custard in which the bread mixed with egg would be soaking at the moment depicted in the painting. She is careful in pouring the trickle of milk because bread pudding can be ruined when the ingredients are not accurately measured or properly combined. By depicting the working maid in the act of cooking, the artist presents not just a picture of an everyday scene
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Realism (arts)
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Realism in the arts is the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding artistic conventions, implausible, exotic and supernatural elements. Realism has been prevalent in the arts at many periods, and is in part a matter of technique and training. In the visual arts, illusionistic realism is the depiction of lifeforms, perspective. Realist works of art may emphasize the mundane, ugly or sordid, such as works of realism, regionalism. There have been various movements in the arts, such as the opera style of verismo, literary realism, theatrical realism. The realism art movement in painting began in France in the 1850s, the realist painters rejected Romanticism, which had come to dominate French literature and art, with roots in the late 18th century. Realism is the precise, detailed and accurate representation in art of the appearance of scenes. Realism in this sense is also called naturalism, mimesis or illusionism, realistic art was created in many periods, and it is in large part a matter of technique and training, and the avoidance of stylization. It becomes especially marked in European painting in the Early Netherlandish painting of Jan van Eyck, however such realism is often used to depict, for example, angels with wings, which were not things the artists had ever seen in real life. It is the choice and treatment of matter that defines Realism as a movement in painting. The development of increasingly accurate representation of the appearances of things has a long history in art. It includes elements such as the depiction of the anatomy of humans and animals, of perspective and effects of distance. Ancient Greek art is recognised as having made great progress in the representation of anatomy. Pliny the Elders famous story of birds pecking at grapes painted by Zeuxis in the 5th century BC may well be a legend, roman portraiture, when not under too much Greek influence, shows a greater commitment to a truthful depiction of its subjects. The art of Late Antiquity famously rejected illusionism for expressive force, scientific methods of representing perspective were developed in Italy and gradually spread across Europe, and accuracy in anatomy rediscovered under the influence of classical art. As in classical times, idealism remained the norm, intriguingly, having led the development of illusionic painting, still life was to be equally significant in its abandonment in Cubism. The depiction of ordinary, everyday subjects in art also has a history, though it was often squeezed into the edges of compositions. However these objects are at least largely there because they carry layers of complex significance, pieter Bruegel the Elder pioneered large panoramic scenes of peasant life
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Tronie
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A tronie is a common type, or group of types, of works common in Dutch Golden Age painting and Flemish Baroque painting that shows an exaggerated facial expression or a stock character in costume. The term tronie is not clearly defined in art historical literature, literary and archival sources show that initially the term tronie was not always associated with people. Inventories sometimes referred to flower and fruit still lifes as tronies, more common was the meaning of face. Often the term referred to the head, even a bust. A tronie could be two-dimensional, but also made of plaster or stone, sometimes a tronie was a likeness, the depiction of an individual, including the face of God, Christ, Mary, a saint or an angel. In particular a tronie denoted the characteristic appearance of the head of a type, for example a farmer, Tronie sometimes meant a grotesque head or a model such as the type of an ugly old person. When conceived as the face of an individual and of a type a tronies aim was to express feelings and character in an accurate manner and must therefore be expressive. In modern art-historical usage the term tronie is typically restricted to figures not intended to depict an identifiable person, the picture was typically sold on the art market without identification of the sitter, and was not commissioned and retained by the sitter as portraits normally were. Similar unidentified figures treated as history paintings would normally be given a title from the classical world, the genre started in the Low Countries in the 16th century where it was likely inspired by some of the grotesque heads drawn by Leonardo. Leonardo had pioneered drawings of paired grotesque heads whereby two heads, usually in profile, were placed opposite each other in order to accentuate their diversity and this paired juxtaposition was also adopted by artists in the Low Countries. In 1564 or 1565 Joannes and Lucas van Doetecum are believed to have engraved 72 heads attributed to Pieter Brueghel the Elder that followed this paired arrangement and this paired model was still being used by some artists in the 17th century. For instance, the Flemish artist Jan van de Venne who was active in the first half of the 17th century painted a number of tronies juxtaposing different faces, several Rembrandt self-portrait etchings are tronies, as are paintings of himself, his son and his wives. Other definitions would include the studies in facial expression and less-finished etchings with costume, three Vermeer paintings were described as tronies in the Dissius auction of 1696, perhaps including the Girl with a Pearl Earring and the Washington Young Girl with a flute. Frans Hals also painted a number of tronies, which are now among his best-known works, adriaen Brouwer was one of the most successful practitioners of the genre as he had a talent for expressiveness. His work gave a face to lower-class figures by infusing their images with recognizable and vividly expressed human emotions—anger, joy, pain and his Youth Making a Face shows a young man with a satirical and mocking gesture which humanises him, however uninviting he may appear. Brouwers vigorous application of paint in this composition, with his characteristically short, genre painters often returned to the old theme of the allegory of the five senses and created series of tronies depicting the five senses. Examples are Lucas Franchoys the Youngers A man removing a plaster, the tronie is related to, and has some overlap with, the portrait historié, a portrait of a real person as another, usually historical or mythological, figure. Jan de Bray specialised in these, and many portraitists sometimes showed aristocratic ladies in particular as mythological figures, ISBN 978-3-7861-2567-9 Gottwald, Franziska, Das Tronie
