17th Century Master Artist: Johannes Vermeer

Vincent van Gogh is one of the world’s most well-known artists. He was the son of a pastor and was brought up in a religious atmosphere. He thought his true calling was to preach the gospel like his father. He became a preacher in a small coal mining town. This is when he starting becoming very interested in the people and things that surrounded him. He became an artist at the age of 27.

Olivetan Master was an Italian artist, active during 1425- about 1450 is called by this name because of a signature found from Milan in 1439. Milan describes him as a brother of the Order of Monteoliveto, which tells that he was an Olivetan monk himself. He is known for other different collections and an illuminated rule of Saint Benedict in Oxford at the Bodleian Library. He is known as an artist that create figured that are both elegant and emotionally impressive.

In a girl with the pearl earring the protagonist, Griet, is sent to be a maid the artist Johannes Vermeer and his growing family. In this household she becomes close to Vermeer’s work, and eventually the secretive painting of Griet seeps out into the rest of the family and the town beyond.

In the book by Timothy Brook, Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World, the author analysis several paintings of the Dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer. In these several paintings, Vermeer, beautifully depicts scenes from daily life. His paintings are from the Dutch Golden Age and are incredibly realistic and the way he shows light and color are strikingly gorgeous. Although Vermeer’s painting skills are developed the subject of his paintings illustrate quite simple subjects, showing middle class daily life and tasks. However, Brooks takes readers past the beautiful colors we see on the surface and digs a little deeper into each one, going in and unraveling the scene to analysis things like globalization and world trade in the 1600s.

Johannes Vermeer was born in Delft in 1632 and died in Delft in 1675. Vermeer was never famously recognized during his life, like most artists, and became more known after his death. There are just over 30 paintings of his that are well known today ("Vermeer Gallery”). The Milkmaid was painted by Vermeer in 1657-58 (“The Milkmaid”). This time period was known as the Dutch Golden Age. During this time, women carrying out domestic roles was honorable. The woman in this painting is most likely a kitchen maid who is making a type of bread porridge with leftover bread and milk (milkmaids milk the cows, kitchen maids worked inside). The small wooden box on the floor in the painting is a foot heater, but was sometimes used by kitchen maids to heat other places as well. This added on to Vermeer’s previous sexual aspects to the image of a kitchen maids in his paintings (Liedtke). When Vermeer painted The Milkmaid, he was combining the styles of other artists with observation and polished artistic taste. For example, Vermeer’s realistic aspect to the painting was influenced by Gerrit Dou’s detailed realism

Jan Vermeer was a Dutch painter who fascinated by the use of light in his paintings. “Unlike Caravaggio and Rembrandt, who used light for dramatic emphasis, Vermeer concentrated on the way light reveals each color, texture, and detail of the physical world” (Preble 307). Vermeer

Arguably no other artist has captured people's imaginations like Vincent van Gogh. “Vincent van Gogh’s passion, contemplation of life, nature, art, his intensity, his mental illnesses, and his suicide at thirty-seven have all contributed to the powerful myths and love for the estranged artist” (Callow). It is hard to believe that such a beloved painter of today’s society lived such, a short and tortured life. At a young age things, did not start out too well for Vincent. He did not have a very good childhood, and went through many failures in life before he finally found he had an enjoyment for painting. He did not find out that he had a love for painting until he was about twenty-seven years old. Even when he discovered that his calling

Van Eyck redundant technique allowed him to incorporate religious symbols and even obvious designs such as writing his name in calligraphy. In the Madonna of Chancellor Rolin, the perfection of the painting demonstrates his understanding of universal symbolism and his belief that god created a world of divine perfection, which he portrays in the perfection of the painting. Symbolism, a technique uncommon before van Eyck, provides historians with insight into his personal religious values and morales. His innovation added to the Renaissance culture and the idea of individualism, and helped define ‘The Spirit of the Renaissance.’ Jan van Eyck’s art often portrays subjects using common aesthetic principles of naturalism.

Vincent Van Gogh was born on March, 30 1853 in the town of Zundert in the Netherlands. He died at the age of thirty-seven on July 20, 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise, France. Van Gogh primarily worked in oil paints on canvas or board. Some of his works include, The Starry Night, Irises, and the Night Cafe. He used oil paints as his main media. The art he created was primarily expressionistic and impressionistic. Expressionism is a unique type of painting, music, or theatrics in which the artist tries to express emotional experience rather than impressions of the external world. Impressionism is a style in painting starting in France in the 1860s, distinguished by a concern with depicting the visual impression of the moment, most likely in terms

One of which was Hans Memling and another Martin Schongauer. The unusual coloring was said in his best piece the same tone is not repeated in any other area of the canvas, including the whites. He had created new techniques for oil painting which had several different layers to present the idea of transparency and atmosphere. Causing the introduction of religious scenes and a taste for fine detail. Though he was an important artist in life and a century after, he was soon forgotten by the mid 18th century due to the change in artistic taste. He is now known as one of the three greatest Early Flemish artists, along with Robert Campin and van Eyck, and the most influential Northern painter of the 15th

Jan van Eyck was from the Netherlands and painted during the fifteenth century. Like many artists during this time period in the northern regions of Europe, van Eyck favoured oil paint to be the medium of his paintings. The art that came out of this time period contained a great deal of detail. Jan van Eyck’s most notable piece of artwork is the Arnolfini Double Portrait. The painting contained many of the qualities of fifteenth century flemish artwork. The painting was done in oil and was very detailed.

It is most widely recognized painting in the world. It is believed that he worked on this painting from 1503-1507 some even believe he may have worked on up to as late as 1517. It is not only the most recognized painting in the world but also mysterious. We still cannot identify the woman in the painting, even though there are many different guesses and opinions.

The initiator of the Flemish painting, and considered as a pioneer the Nordic of the first Renaissance. Jan van Eyck, together with the Master of Flemalle (Robert Campin) and Rogier van Weyden, were the most famous artists of this school, and the most virtuous in the use of oil. Good as a camera painter and a man of trust. This status granted him the benefit of his respectable reputation giving him great artistic freedom. van Eyck settles in Bruges where he dies years later. His work stands out especially for its meticulousness, a characteristic that leads to the deduction of its observant and detailed nature. He is also admired for the psychological burden of his works, full of vitality. His works are composed mainly of portraits and sacred

Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most recognized artists in the world. Van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands. Van Gogh was born into a family of six children in which his father was a pastor and his mother was an artist. He was named after his stillborn brother who died exactly one year before he was born.

Throughout the vast history of art, historians can find connections throughout the centuries. Artists from the beginning of humankind have been inspired by the world around them. From the Apollo 11 stones to present day, history and culture have provided inspiration and have been the focus of various pieces. Examining artwork from the 15th-18th century, viewers can be shown a whole world that would be unknown to us without these artist’s contributions. History, religion, and cultural events have sculpted the art world, and we can observe this through many pieces during the 15th-18th centuries.