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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: THE DUTCH BAROQUE - JAN VERMEER
3/16/2010 2:00:41 AM
Quote:
Hello Luis,
Thank you for presenting this wonderful piece. I have admired this work many times.
Rose


Dear Rose,

What a great honor that you visit us. As a painter and an artist yourself, your feedback is all the more treasured, always. You are so welcomed, and I would love that you keep visiting this forum.

Sincerely,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: THE DUTCH BAROQUE - JAN VERMEER
3/17/2010 5:09:30 PM
Dear Friends,


Here is the link to the complete catalog of Vermeer's works:

http://www.essentialvermeer.com/vermeer_painting_part_one.html




Jan Vermeer - Christ in the House of Martha and Mary
(oil on canvas, 1654-1655?)

NOTE: This is a relatively little known painting by Jan Vermeer. It appeared "out of the blue" ca. 1900. I could have overlooked it were it not for the fact that it is listed in the above-mentioned catalog. One of Vermeer's earliest masterworks, it is an impressive, large-scale work treasured in the National Gallery of Scotland, in Edinburgh.

Best Wishes,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: THE DUTCH BAROQUE - JAN VERMEER
3/18/2010 12:57:29 AM

Dear Myrna,

Thanks for the rose; it's a very special rose.

The painting immediately below, one of Vermeer's most exquisite masterworks, is dedicated to you; it's very special too.

(click to enlarge)

Jan Vermeer - Lady with Her Maidservant Holding a Letter
(also known as Mistress and Maid)
(oil on canvas, c.1667)


(a detail)


This painting is considered to be "one of Vermeer's finest rendering of the female psyche and physiognomy..." (read the complete catalog's description at http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/mistress_and_maid.html).

It goes on to say "...The sensitive, slightly blurred line of the mistress' profile recalls one critic's definition of the contour of the girl's face in the Girl with a Pearl Earring as "the sweetest line ever painted." The economical rendering of the anatomical features is truly astounding and finds few equals in Dutch painting. Her uncertain gaze is rendered with a few wisps of grayish paint that displays no linear definition whatsoever. Just as the present case, none of the women who modeled for Vermeer's paintings have ever been identified."

I think the commentator got a point there. Few famous paintings have ever raised as enthusiastic a commentary as to their psychological and physiognomic characteristics as this one - with the exception, of course, of The Girl with a Pearl Earring itself, Leonardo's Gioconda, and a few others.

Best Wishes,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo



"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Roger Macdivitt .

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RE: THE DUTCH BAROQUE - JAN VERMEER
3/18/2010 1:23:09 AM

Luis,

So many beautiful details.

The figures are so believable.

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: THE DUTCH BAROQUE - JAN VERMEER
3/18/2010 2:36:32 AM
Quote:

Luis,

So many beautiful details.

The figures are so believable.



Yes Roger, they are; it's so striking how they look like every day's people. They are, as you recently noted, timeless.

There are few exceptions to this and the most remarkable is, to me, Vermeer's Allegory of Faith; as remarkable as the fact that it is one of his latest works, if not the very last (1674?).


Jan Vermeer - The Allegory of Faith (oil on canvas, 1674?)

Also most significant is to me the fact that Vermeer only painted religious works at the beginning of his career... and at its end (just this one!). One of the few known facts about him is that he professed the Catholic faith and that he had some sort of attachment to the Jesuits in his country. From the profusion of symbols (whose meaning is now lost) and other curious objects in this most peculiar painting, not the lest curious of which is a simplified version of Jacob Jordaen's Crucifixion on the back, various critics, scholars and other commentators have suggested different interpretations of it. But as with many other things that have to do with symbols, if you don't have the key to their meaning, they remain a mystery.

Remember G.F. Watts' Hope? I believe it very likely it was mainly inspired in this work.

Best Wishes,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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