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Jan Vermeer |
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Vermeer, Jan (Delft 1632-1675), uno dei maggiori pittori olandesi, la cui opera fu pienamente rivalutata soltanto alla fine dell'Ottocento. Dopo sei anni di apprendistato, forse anche presso il pittore Carel Fabritius, nel 1653 entrò nella corporazione dei pittori di San Luca di Delft, divenendo importante e stimato membro del Consiglio. Visse modestamente esercitando più il commercio di opere d'arte che la pittura. Solo 35 sono le opere di Vermeer sicure; tale penuria è spiegabile con le sue abitudini di lavoro estremamente metodico e con la scomparsa di numerose tele nel periodo di oblio che seguì la sua morte relativamente precoce.
La produzione di Vermeer, caratterizzata da oggettività e precisione di esecuzione e da un senso geometrico di ordine, consiste, con poche eccezioni (fra cui alcuni paesaggi, strade o ritratti), di dipinti di genere che ritraggono la vita olandese del tempo: interni domestici illuminati dal sole, con una o due figure impegnate a leggere, scrivere, suonare uno strumento o fare le faccende domestiche. Vermeer fu un maestro nella composizione e nella rappresentazione dello spazio. La Fanciulla assopita (1656 ca., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) è un chiaro esempio di come egli interpretasse la prospettiva e dosasse i valori tonali, dal primo piano gradualmente verso lo sfondo. In altre opere, quali La lattaia (1660, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), Fanciulla con una brocca (1663, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) e Veduta di Delft (1660 ca., Mauritshuis, L'Aia), registrò gli effetti della luce con sottile delicatezza e purezza di colore. Altri dipinti famosi sono Soldato con fanciulla ridente (1657, Frick Collection, New York), Ragazza con cappello rosso (1667, National Gallery of Art, Washington) e l'Atelier del pittore (1670 ca., Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna).
Text from "The Bulfinch Guide to Art History":
| Dutch painter. He specialized in domestic interiors, portraits and
city views. His entire life was spent in Delft, where, it has been
suggested, he may have been trained by Leonaert Bramer or Carel
Fabritius. His work does indeed show an affinity with that of Fabritius,
but their relationship remains uncertain. Vermeer was a Master in the
Delft painters' guild from 1653, was elected Dean (hoofdman) in
1662-3 and 1670-71, and was highly regarded in his lifetime, although he
seems to have never been particularly wealthy, leaving his wife and 11
children in debt at his death. His name and reputation were almost
forgotten until 1866 when the art critic Thoré Burger published an
essay attributing 66 pictures to him (only 34 paintings are firmly
attributed to him today). The few contemporary references to his
paintings all relate to surviving works, so it is unlikely that there
were ever many more - he may have been a slow worker and probably (like
many Dutch painters of this period) had another source of income - a
trip to The Hague in 1672 to authenticate some paintings suggests that
he may have been a picture dealer. A chronology of Vermeer's work is complicated by the fact that only three paintings are dated: The Procuress (1656, Dresden, Gemäldegalerie), The Astronomer (1668, private collection), and The Geographer (1669, Frankfurt, Städelsches). Two pictures are generally accepted as earlier than The Procuress; both are history paintings, painted in a warm palette and in a relatively large format for Vermeer - Christ in the House of Mary and Martha (Edinburgh, National Gallery) and Diana and her Companions (The Hague, Mauritshuis). After The Procuress almost all of Vermeer's paintings are of contemporary subjects in a smaller format, with a cooler palette dominated by blues, yellows and greys. It is to this period that practically all of his surviving works belong. They are usually domestic interiors with one or two figures lit by a window on the left. They are characterized by a serene sense of compositional balance and spatial order, unified by an almost pearly light. Mundane domestic or recreational activities become thereby imbued with a poetic timelessness (e.g. Woman Reading a Letter at an Open Window, Dresden, Gemäldegalerie). To this period also have been allocated Vermeer's two townscapes, View of Delft (The Hague, Mauritshuis) and A Street in Delft (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum). A few of his paintings show a certain hardening of manner and these are generally thought to represent his late works. From this period come The Allegory of Faith (c 1670, New York, Metropolitan Museum) and The Letter (c 1670, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum). The often discussed sparkling pearly highlights in Vermeer's paintings have been linked to his probable use of a camera obscura, the primitive lens of which would produce halation and, even more noticeably, exaggerated perspective. Such effects can be seen in Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman (London, Royal Collection). Vermeer's interest in optics is also attested in this work by the accurately observed mirror reflection above the lady at the virginals. |
Books on Vermeer
Brusati, Celeste
Johannes Vermeer (Rizzoli Art)
Rizzoli Intl Pubns, 1993
Hertel, Christiane
Vermeer : Reception and Interpretation
Cambridge Univ Press, 1996
Montias, John Michael
Vermeer and His Milieu : A Web of Social History
Princeton Univ, 1991
Snow, Edward
A Study of Vermeer
Univ of California/Princeton Press, 1994
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr.
Vermeer & the Art of Painting
Yale University Press, 1995
