1. Background
In the 17th century, Holland, with its tiny population of c. 2million people, was ranked among the leading countries of the world, in trade, science and art. During this period, known as the “Dutch Golden Age”, the art world flourished as the Dutch bourgeois, with their wealth and appreciation of art, commissioned paintings of themselves, their families and country. Painters also began exploring new forms and content, with new treatments of architectural volumes, interplay of light and perspective, elegant worlds, traditional portraiture and still life painting. Famous painters from this era include Rembrandt, Franz Hals, Jacob van Ruisdael and the master genre painter, Johannes Vermeer.
Biographical Information
Johannes Vermeer …show more content…
His conversion to Catholicism, probably demanded by his mother in law, would have been a significant issue at that time (Wheelock). His mother in law’s sufficient wealth provides financial security for a time. Additionally, his marriage allowed him to benefit from a Guild rule affording him the rank of “painter”. In later years, Vermeer would become head of the Guild of St. Luke in Delft. For the remaining years, Vermeer shares a house with his mother, elder sister, his wife and eleven of his surviving children, including seven daughters. It is in this busy and bustling household that Vermeer develops his unique style and paints his collection, of which 37 paintings survive to this …show more content…
they speak softly... they possess a restrained sensuality, which is all the more troubling as it sets up an obstacle between the seeker and the object and they arouse desire and create frustration”. This is at a time when the new freewheeling economy of the Golden Age counters the rigours of the traditional Dutch Calvinist society. By focusing on a limited section of society (middle classes, women engrossed in some activity, servants, games of seduction and music playing and learned men) Wheelock believes that Vermeer is “mining that world for meaning” seeking something significant, beyond that limited perspective. Employing terms such as timelessness, purity, ‘restfulness of poses’ and ‘inner peace’, ‘inner strength’, Wheelock concludes that having spent time viewing the paintings that somehow “we come away feeling better about ourselves and