Vermeer Essay

The viewer’s eyes are meant to stay on the picture, but we surge upwards towards the blue sky. When I look at the painting I travel into the man eyes. It raises questions like what he has been through or what stands in front of him.

The blue rectangle running the left side of the painting, heavily tinted in green, creates the image of a wall or curtain besides the window. The lighter colors rectangle on bottom, almost seems as a part of the wall, but the slight tilt hints to a table or dresser top. On top of platform are an random assortment of objects,

Dutch art created during the span of 1610 to 1630 display a vast array of thematic categories. These categories include portraiture, genre, landscape, and history paintings. In spite of such diversity towards subject matter, the artworks all have certain characteristics in common with each other. Three of the shared, underlying principles are an Italian influence, sense of attributing traits to the figures to increase relatability, and emphasis on the humble.

Early flower paintings tended to have static symmetrical compositions like the works of Ambrosius Bosschaert (1573-1621), but flourished into more lively expressions when artists like Willem van Aelst (1627-1687) started to make use of the S curve composition. While studying under van Aelst, Ruysch employed the use the S curve, which distinguishes her paintings from less dynamic earlier work. Ruyschs’ pieces also stand out because of her use of lighting. A spotlight is an appropriate analogy for Ruyschs approach. One central point will be highlighted while the rest of her composition lurks in the shadows. Her lighting technique distinguishes her work from later painters like Jan van Huysum who moved towards the use of lighter backgrounds Still life with flowers” 1-3). Ruyschs’ works have qualities from both the 16th and 17th centuries, and are indicative of progression of the Netherlands art. They confirm that the enthusiasm for floral painting was not short lived .

In the beginning of fifteenth century, trading pictures were more focused on the materials being made, but then it had changed to focus more on the artists’ skills at the end of the century.

In this paper, I will discuss the form, content, and subject matter of three different paintings. Each of the paintings represents the following: representational painting, abstract painting, and a portrait. The paintings I have chosen are: Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks 1942, Wassily Kodinsky’s Colour Studies: Squares and Concentrentic Circles 1913, and Pablo Picasso’s Self-Portrait 1907.

On the other hand, are two designs of Steven Gambrel. Also, a living room and a kitchen. At this point the reader should realize at first glance, one of the

The spiral staircase that divides the room, the old man in front of a window and the man at the fire. The size of the room is the fireplace seems very large, the arched roof and window, thick stone walls and small arched door all point to a small place in a rather grand house, not to mention the spectacular spiral staircase. The man, who is clearly the subject of the painting is resting comfortably while the woman at the fire seems

Frank Stella’s painting Red River Valley is the most figurative of all the works, his linear composition calling to mind specific and recognizable forms. One obvious way he does this is by titling his work, allowing viewers to connect his composition with forms and schema that are already known to them. Although the name evokes a landscape image, Stella’s aim was to depict the buildings that surrounded his New York studio by using architectural motifs (museum card). However, the ambiguous title allows the viewer to project their own experiences onto the painting supporting various interpretations of the work. Reading this work as an architectural depiction, the large red rectangle could represent a door, while the vertical lines underneath

The era of Renaissance art produce some of the most famous works of art that we’ve seen during our lifetimes. Dutch or Northern Renaissance art like Italian both included various forms of portraits that express variations of human behaviors. The styles were a bit different as Italian focused on linear perspective and Dutch was more focused on attention to detail and making them lifelike. Both used oil based paints however, Italian Renaissance art was more mythical and religious whereas Dutch were more landscapes, portraits, and scenic displays. The major difference between the two was how they portrayed the imaged of people in the paintings which could be interpreted in various ways and provide a lot of areas of discussion with the differences

Portrait painting thrived in the Netherlands with the increase in production driven by interest in the idea of personhood and the definition of the individual self. Portraits help document the development of a personal identity as it connects factors like marital status, class, and profession. A common portrait genre produced during the seventeenth century portrays their subjects with an impassive demeanor with little vigor. At first, these paintings may be evaluated as lacking “personality” or “characterization” due to the artist’s lack of talent. However, this is rarely the case. In trying to understand Dutch portraiture, it is important to identify what type of functions they serve. Abraham de Vries’ Double Portrait functions not only as recording of his sitters’ faces but also as a signifier of the cultural, social and philosophical ideas of the time.

In the first photograph attached in the PDF, they have created emphasis on the building by removing all distractions that may have surrounded this. As the camera was set at a direct viewpoint, they were able to capture the overwhelming stature of this building.

Looking at the painting, immediately the viewers will encounter one of the first subject matter, the girl. In this composition, the

The 17th century was a very successful period for the Dutch Republic, as the golden age started, trading has increased, exploration was at its peak, and merchants were becoming very wealthy and powerful. At this time paintings were a form of communication to express power, value, and social class. During the golden age Dutch artists have specialized and master the genre of still life, portraiture, scene’s of everyday life, and landscape painting. Middle-class merchants and wealthy people were the driving force for the demand of art, because “luxury was associated with power” (De Vries). As a result people wanted to express through art their power and wealth in paintings. Furthermore, paintings also let painters express the current fashion and luxurious lives of people. Even though everyone interprets a painting in a very different way, portraits from the Dutch golden age usually emphasized a certain predominant value in its paintings. Portraiture, from the Dutch golden age, mainly focused on emphasizing, pride, power, prosperity, and idealism in its paintings.

Still life, a distinct genre and professional specialization, developed as a separate category in the late sixteenth century. It gave the artists more freedom in the arrangement of elements within a composition than other types of genres such as landscape or portraiture. A style of ostentatious still life painting emerged in the Netherlands and prominent artists, like Willem Claesz Heda, emphasized the abundance by depicting a diversity of objects, fruits, flowers and dead game, often together with animals. This still life reminded viewers of the prosperity of the Republic; “it spoke about the bounty of God’s creation and the nature of art and life.”