((Subtitles are complete but in process of being edited to be more readable - punctuation, keeping sentences whole, etc. - September 23rd, 2017))
Johannes Vermeer was a painter of light.
He lived and worked in Delft in the
heart of the Netherlands but little else
is known about this artist. Names of his
masters, the nature of his training, the
period of his apprenticeship all remain
mysteries. He left
no letters, sketches or drawings.
We know only of his genius. His paintings
have intrigued and fascinated viewers
for centuries. The themes he chose to
paint were those he encountered in daily life:
a girl reading a letter in the
center of a sunlit room,
a figure at work,
a woman pouring milk,
a girl in a red hat her lips parted her
eyes lit with expectation looking at us.
What is it that draws us in? Is it the
poetry and power of the images?
The use of reflected light? The saturation of color the softness and yet brilliance of
the image?
Or the sense of timelessness?
It's mystery and meaning the celebration of
ordinary tasks and daily life filled
with quiet contemplation the frozen
moment in time. Its intimacy and mood:
a room filled with inner thoughts.
Or is it simply the virtuosity of an
extraordinary craftsman?
What is it that makes a Vermeer a
Vermeer?
There's a greater sense of light I think
in Vermeer's painting than there is in
anybody else's and the light bathes as a
room it lights on the figures the
figures seemed to glow that some of them
seem to have a light OMERS within
themselves and there is this brilliant
brilliant use of light that nearly
always comes through a window which is
on one side of the scene when the
fascinating things I noticed is that you
never see the outside you never see a
tree through the window you only see the
light coming through but it is this
light that is incredible his use of this
light playing on the various textures
that he wants to portray which have all
the different meanings the supreme
quality of Vermeer's light is it is the
daylight effect the clear daylight
effect is extraordinary
daylight permeates his shadows and you
see that so beautifully in the milkmaid
as you look into that corner of the room
where there is a wonderful still life of
some kitchen implements a brass pot and
a wicker basket you're seeing the whole
thing but you know it is in shadow and
one of the most beautiful things in the
pictures of wall and back over and the
gradations of light were the intense
light on the right side of the picture
and those gradations go from the most
intense light to a darker light but the
shadows are transparent there's always
this clarity form the forms are never
lost there's another thing that's
exciting about this picture
it begins I have a kind of pointillism
and if you look down at the loaves of
bread you have those solid forms but in
them here's the touches of light he's
broken his forms with these little
points of light and he uses that so
effectively and he use it beautifully in
the view of Delft those boats which are
in the lower right hand corner there
those little little touches of light
which means that the light bounces
on to these dark forms and its wondrous
to behold the woman the balance is one
of those supreme examples of Vermeer is
an artist's light coming in through the
window is gently luminous the whole
interior it's a sort of a soft deep rich
light but it's wonderful to watch it
happens wonderful to watch it evolve and
Vermeer's gives you the sense of light
spilling across the interior of that
space it passes by that orange curtain
you can see how the light goes from
behind that curtain hits the wall
directly the gray of the wall and then
it passes through the thickest part of
the curtain and it's a deep dark shadow
at that point and then as it hits the
edge of the curtain it creates a golden
globe that links together the gray of
the wall and the deepest part of the
shadow as it comes into the room and
then the light passes down illuminating
the table then the gold and the pearls
on the table come across caught by the
edge of the table and then your eye is
drawn by your hand as it rests on the
table and you're brought back up to see
her face it's wonderful quiet gentle
face with her downcast eyes as she looks
down at the balances she holds him a
hand light draws you in and encompass
the full scope of the painting
harnessing light is central to the power
of Vermeer he transformed paint into
light in the most brilliant and
mesmerizing way
you
he seduces us very quickly
Vermeer does there's a magical quality
to his work beautiful it's simple but
that's very deceptive he's concentrating
all the time he adjusts reality if you
look at the art of painting as an artist
in an easel we seem from the back and
he's painting a woman and she really
represents history and there's a map in
the background and the foreground is set
so beautifully with a great carpet and
the wonderful chandelier all those
details are ravishing but where is the
right leg of the easel if you follow it
down you see the top of it and you come
down and you see the artist is seated on
a stool and his foot is forward but
there's no length of easel so where is
that leg if you look in that area where
his leg is forward and there are the two
legs of a stool if the leg of the easel
came down there it would come found that
whole area so he's either hidden it
behind those two legs of the stool or
he's eliminated completely and if
there's ever proof that Vermeer is not
an ape of nature he he just doesn't
paint what he sees he makes adjustments
his pictures are so calculated carefully
you don't see the calculation but I
assure you he has calculated his effects
he's concentrated there's tremendous
intelligence at work your artistic
intelligence Mamiya designs his
paintings so brilliantly so carefully
that every part of the painting every
drop of paint every line every nuance of
color has a deliberate meaning the
meaning and the composition and meaning
in the power
every part of the story whatever it is
everything has a meaning one of the most
wonderful examples is the woman in blue
reading a letter it's a single figure
who's standing in the corner of a room
and she's holding this letter and you
can see the kind of emotional intensity
of her experience because just what she
clasped her arms by her side but Vermeer
locks that gesture into space by placing
those hands right over the very strong
horizontal bar that's the bottom of the
map that hangs on a wall behind her so
this horizontal bar at the bottom
creates this tense concentration on
those hands so the result is that you
feel nothing can move light also enters
into this equation while there are all
these beautiful shadows and subtle
shadow effects throughout the painting
she casts no shadow by not casting a
shadow he somehow separates her out from
time this sends a passage of time that
one senses with shadows the moving of
shadows doesn't exist with her so it
enhances that a whole sense of
permanence it's very hard with Vermeer
to separate one thing from another
because they're also into woven
interlocked
in the woman holding a balance another
example
it looks as though she will never move
it's in large part created by the
gesture of the hand holding the balance
because that hand is locked in space by
being juxtaposed over the vertical and
horizontal elements of the frame the
little finger is extended horizontally
it just holds that hand in space and
then for me reinforces that visual
juxtaposition with a perspective if
you'll follow the perspective lines go
right back to that finger that extended
finger the perspective of the table of
the mirror on the wall in front of her
all we see the tooth at one point so
that vanishing point reinforces the
importance of that gesture and it's very
interesting infamy all the way through
is clear to see how we uses perspective
he places the vanishing point because
the vanishing point tells us where he
wants the eye to go an explanation of
everything making having a really
serious part of the composition he's in
the woman with the balance when I first
examined that painting before the
cleaning the frame of the Last Judgement
lying behind the woman was entirely
black in the X radiograph you could see
the frame on the right side of the
painting behind the woman's head had two
light lines coming down these light
lines show there was a density there a
dense material which could have been
white LED or led to in yellow
further examination showed that this
frame had been over painted by somebody
not by Vermeer very much later and that
two gold lines actually they were bright
yellow had been painted out and painted
with a dark grey when that over paint
was removed if the composition came to
life because you got on the right hand
side the two gold lines you got on the
left-hand side the light coming in and
the gold yellow curtain and the right in
the center is the gold little bit of her
dress and there are these three very
very important points creating the
strength of this composition with her
holding the balance without the gold
lines of the frame behind the
composition was just failing it just
didn't have the tension and the meaning
that it now has and that is a very good
example of how every little thing in
Vermeer's every little point every
little mark has a meaning and has a
purpose nothing is left to chance
Vermeer's masterwork the music lesson
clearly shows that nothing is left to
chance on the far side of a sunlit room
a woman stands playing a virginal a man
in elegant dress watches her and listens
intently both figures are quiet as
though the music were measured and
restrained this is one of the most
refined of Vermeer's works he carefully
calculated every aspect of its
composition the figures the musical
instruments the mirror table tile
patches and chairs
however realistically presented are
conceived as interlocking patterns of
color and shape
ramírez placement of the vanishing
point creates a dynamic and clear focus
it falls on the sunlit sleeve of the
woman a halo of reflected light in color
emphasizes its importance we can
actually see the hole in the canvas left
by the pin Vermeer used to construct the
perspective of the painting the power of
this work grows out of Vermeer's use of
linear perspective the sharply receding
wall on the left
coupled with the pronounced orthogonals
of the window frame leads the eye
quickly to the woman she becomes the
fulcrum around which the painting
revolves Vermeer further compresses the
space by filling the right side of the
scene with a large tapestry covered
table the angle of its receding edge
transports us quickly back to the
vanishing point the floor also plays a
significant role in the perspective
construction its strong diagonal pattern
leads us directly to the woman
the interlocking series of rectangular
shapes surrounding the woman adds visual
emphasis to her importance Vermeer
creates a strong vertical focus by
placing the mirror directly above the
lid of the virginal so that the bottom
edge of its frame is overlapped by the
top edge of the lid by including the
woman's reflection in the mirror he
underscores her significance within the
painting the placement of the man and
his relationship to the woman was of
concern to Vermeer infrared analysis
reveals that he first painted the man
further forward and leaning more toward
the woman she likewise had a more active
stance her head twisted back in his
direction
Vermeer subsequently altered the figures
the woman now stands directly facing the
virginal scene from behind her face is
hidden from the viewer but her image in
the mirror was left as originally
painted he moved the man slightly
placing him in a more upright position
these adjustments were subtle but
crucial Vermeer transformed the figures
from active poses to statuesque ones
emphasizing the permanence of their
relationship the effect brings them into
harmony with the carefully ordered space
Vermeer uses color to strengthen the
focus the yellow white of the woman's
blouse the golden color of the virginal
and matching reflected light on the back
wall highlight the figures the red of
the woman's skirt and Vermeer's
selective use of black on the mirror the
virginal the clothing of the two figures
and the pattern of the floor help lock
our eye into place
the combination of overall contrasting
colors patterns and shapes create major
and minor accents focused on the theme
of the painting Vermeer preserves the
privacy of the couple by creating an
intimate space through the arrangement
of objects on the right the strategic
placement of the chairs and the bass
viola on the floor locked the couple
into the background protecting their
private communication and separating
them from us the forward position of the
table and the placement of the painting
on the back wall reinforce their
intimate space by placing a chair
directly between the table and the
vanishing point
Vermeer interrupts the perspective line
slowing down our immediate access to the
couple we are outside looking in
the white elegantly proportioned pitcher
sitting on the table is central to the
composition of painting its form echoes
the curve of the gentleman's arm and
it's color helps to link the foreground
to the background the purity of this
form gives it an almost sacramental
character symbolically reinforcing the
theme of comfort and harmony provided by
love the mirror is one of Vermeer's
primary creative tools using the mirror
Vermeer allows us to look down on the
woman a carpeted table and the tiled
floor of the room the sensitivity with
which he has rendered the reflection is
remarkable he set it back into the
mirror rather than placing it on the
surface by painting the forms softer and
smaller and by depicting the distorted
reflections along the mirrors beveled
edge Vermeer uses the mirror to give us
another viewpoint of the woman revealing
her most inner thoughts by leaving the
woman's original position in the mirror
gazing at the man he suspends that
psychological moment forever
it is this poetic image in the mirror
that draws us emotionally into the heart
of the painting
premier manipulated the angle of the
mirror for that purpose here we see the
tilt of the mirror as he painted it but
in order to actually see the scene the
mirror reflects it would have to be
drastically tilted by more than 30
degrees
Vermeer manipulated reality to intensify
the psychological power of the painting
understanding the potential of light is
a primary aspect of Vermeer's genius
here we see the room as it most likely
would have been lit given the clues the
painting provides Vermeer then
selectively manipulates the light to
strengthen the focus he eliminated the
shadows that should exist on the back
wall to create an evenly illuminated
white surface providing a backdrop to
emphasize the silhouettes of the figures
while Vermeer drastically reduced the
shadow at the top of the virginal to
allow the upper wall to be gently bathed
in light
he darkened the shadow at the base of
the window and distorted its angle on
the wall these two divergent shadows
hold the virginal in place the upper
shadow leading the eye to the corner of
the lid and the lower shadow drawing our
eye to where the leg meets the floor
Vermeer manipulated the shadows beneath
the virginal by placing them closer to
each other than they would really be
giving them greater substance and
emphasizing the silhouetted shapes of
the legs
he eliminated the shadow of the
virginals body against the rear wall in
order to reinforce this effect Vermeer
completes this masterpiece by inserting
his own presence showing the reflection
of his easel in the top of the mirror he
reminds us that the artist is clearly
present and in complete control he is
the master of what we see the little
Street is one incredible painting it's
really the one I would most like to have
at home is one of these paintings that
somehow brings you back to your
childhood makes you remember what it was
like to be a kid to look out across the
way and see life going on just like it
always had gone on you'd see the woman
sitting there doing a little thing you
see the kids playing on the street you
see the little maid in the back they've
been there time after time after time
you know something very comforting about
this world
it's a very contained world it's a few
of a street but you its what's
interesting is you don't feel like you
need to go left or right you're very
happy right there
you're very happy you don't want to go
anyplace else from here somehow has
created a sense of a street and you
don't want to walk down it you just want
to stay and look at this little world
that he's given you and one of the
magical things one of the reasons that
that happens is because of that red
shutter that red shutter says stop that
red shadow says you've gone far enough
you don't have to go any further so that
red shutter is really important to
blocking limiting the giving that sense
of comfort in that world he's created to
the left of the door you see that
there's not nearly enough space for the
shutters on the two windows to the left
to completely open so Vermeer has
actually adjust to the architecture of
the building widen the space between the
window on the far right
and the door to allow that shutter to
open flat because he needed that red
there he knew he needed that red flat
against the wall in order to complete
that composition so there is a wonderful
example of color being used for
compositional purposes he's a colorist
from the word go from the very beginning
is a great colorist and what changes in
its color is from a warm tonality from
reds and yellows to the yellow and blue
to the cool and then the silvery quality
of his light and I don't think he
divorced the light from the color it's
all of a piece he can get the sheen and
the texture in a magical way Vermeer
does this repaint satin it really looks
like Santa crisp you can almost hear it
in a pile of a rug or the bread the
crustiness of a bread the color is doing
that or the water and a view of Delft
the viscous water the fabric or the
color of the of the clouds and mind you
that fault in the view of Delft that sky
is just unbelievable you know you say
that Vermeer copies nature and sense
those clouds he organized those clouds
clouds aren't that way clouds don't
stand still for landscape painter he has
to figure out how am I going to arrange
them and he keep some horizontal so his
sense of the great vault and then of the
heavens and it goes back to the horizon
and he's doing that always color his
color is intense he can use one color
next door to door to another with the
most brilliant intensity there's a great
example in the girl with a red hat where
she is wearing this beautiful blue
costume and the highlights
instead of being lighter blue which is
what you would expect a yellow which is
opposite to blue and therefore creates
this shimmer and this
is this nobody else does this it is
absolutely extraordinary and that
painting is a brilliant display of color
she's sitting against this rich woven
tapestry marvellous interweaving at
these shapes all of which are
brilliantly placed not one has a little
thing out of place they all play a part
in getting this fabulous sense of this
moment of this girl turning towards you
catching the light on her face and in
her hat and it's a brilliant brilliant
piece of observation and translation of
that into this painting when you're able
to hold the girl the red hat in your
hands that is a very special feeling and
in doing that you really sense the
artist at work there's a whole different
relationship that you have at that time
little things that are hard to pick up
in the gallery for example for Mary
gives this radiance of her vision with a
little turquoise highlight that he puts
in your eye and this wonderful pink
highlight in the mouth it's little
accents like that that just make it come
alive and have this kind of vivid
quality Vermeer works in glazes very
thin glazes and the Blues particular are
very thinly painted he uses natural
ultramarine which is a wonderful pure
pigment he prepared that area of the the
blue robe with a reddish-brown under
painting and that gives a certain warmth
to the blue so when he paints it very
thinly you have this warm glow that
comes to the background so it's not just
a cool blue it has this inner WAMP that
ties it in to the red of the Hat and the
orange of the cheeks and sort of the
whole humanity of the image comes across
through that means and he uses his
material and his techniques to enhance
the the emotional and psychological
qualities of his work
the girl with the red hat is a sensuous
painting it is intimate and immediate
she communicates directly with us for
Muir's use of colour drives the
emotional power of this painting he sets
the figure against the muted tones of a
tapestry concentrating colour on the
flame red of her hat and the lushness of
her blue robe
ramier established an ochre base for the
background of the painting the soft
tones of the tapestry elegantly emerge
from that color
the Lionhead finials defined the
foreground and placed the figure in
space quick strong strokes suggest the
basic contours and structure of the
heads
using reddish-brown color for the base
of the robe ramier covered it with deep
blue to establish its form the brown
bleeds through and the combination of
colors creates an extraordinary sense of
warmth he applied a delicate blue glaze
to define the folds of the fabric his
use of thinly painted glazes creates
depth and the addition of ice blue
highlights provides a shimmering quality
The face is established first in shadow.
Vermeer used an opaque deep red orange
paint as the underground for the Hat.
The red is an intensely warm and active
color. It heightens the immediacy of the girls gaze.
A succession of
semi-transparent strokes of light red
and orange creates the feathery
appearance of the Hat.
Vermeer demonstrates his sensitivity to
the effects of reflected light by
placing a dark purple hue on the
underside of the Hat.
He subtly casts an orange-red reflection
across the girl's face to accentuate the effect the red has on the viewer
He then
uses green, the complementary color of red,
to create the shadows on the face
enhancing both colors Vermeer paints the
cravat in a brilliant white after laying
the white down he scraped away some of
the paint to create definition the white
in the center of the composition cradles
the face and focuses attention on her
expression Vermeer draws upon the power
of light to increase the intensity of
the color and to animate the painting
adding soft and shimmering highlights
that crystallized the form of the
finials
yellow highlights to enhance the blue of
the robe and accentuate the quality of
its color delicate strokes finishing the
texture and lushness of her hat and
highlights on the earring nose and lips
to bring the face to life his crowning
touches are the placement of the pink on
her lips
the turquoise in her eye
Vermeer's extraordinary use of color
encourages a dialogue between the viewer
and the girl and enhances the sense of
poetry that flows throughout his
paintings
Oh
you
premier was trying to emulate effects
that he would have seen an optical
device called a camera obscura some of
those qualities of this immediacy of
looking out of this more momentary
character of this painting may and in
fact be partially explained by the
inspiration of the camera obscura I did
really paint from a camera obscura he
certainly didn't copy the camera obscura
but it was a way of seeing was way
enriching the way he saw that he then
would apply and create and adapt in
paintings such as this
camera obscura means darkened chamber
its images were seen as magical in the
17th century often described as nature's
paintings it's process is simple when
the camera faces an image on the outside
rays of light enter into the darkened
chamber through a convex lens on the
front of the box projecting an inverted
and reversed image on the surface of the
glass viewing window at the back of the
camera the image contains optical
effects such as diffused or soft
highlights this is an actual
black-and-white image of a lion head
finial as seen through a camera obscura
the impact of this optical effect can
clearly be seen when we place it next to
Vermeer's painted finial and the girl
with the red hat those finials are a
marvelous example of what you will see
from a camera obscura they're slightly
out of focus in a way and yet he's
managed that light on them in the most
brilliant way the highlights are made by
building up layers of paint starting
with an opaque layer then building
translucent layers one on top of another
and finishing with little spots of
bright white light and those spots
bright white light are intense and in
fact they remind me of the pearls that
you see absorbed in infamy as paintings
where he does exactly the same thing
where he puts this circle of translucent
white paint grayish white paint to
create the roundness of the pearl than
this little blob of white paint in the
center which creates the light is
exactly the same way that he paints the
finials is it's quite extraordinary I
think the most magical moment perhaps
that all of Vermeer's work is in the
lacemaker
what a wonderful painting and you have
this woman this intent woman who's busy
with her activity of lace making in the
foreground you have this thread spilling
out of this cushion totally diffuse I
mean you cannot make out what these are
this incredible unfocused quality of
these threads it's amazing and that is
such a wonderful example of what one
would see in a camera focused closely on
an individual you focus the image on the
face of the individual and the
foreground then gets entirely out of
focus with Vermeer there's this
marvelous softness where outlines are
soft every layer flows into one another
so you get this fabulous sense this
poetic sense of light and movement
whether it be on a tabletop whether it
be on a ball whether it be on a person's
face everything is very very soft and
flowing from one layer into another
there are no hard edges to look out of a
mirror through a microscope is an
extraordinary experience because you see
all this flowing all these soft soft
edges you wonder whether you're looking
at the edge of the finger or something
else when you're looking at a woman's
hand so soft are they and he achieved
this by painting wet in wet now this is
very simple he would put down one layer
let's say over Paik paint while it was
still wet he would put another layer on
top and because the underlying layer was
still wet they would meld together
soften together the edges would just
blur a little bit and there would be
this flowing of these edges so if you
have a number of layers one on top of
the other doing this this is creating
this extraordinary sense of atmosphere
in diffusion of light this marvelous
feeling of the form without having to
describe every little fine detail and a
very good example of this is the little
Street and Delft the house which has
this facade of a brick wall where if you
look at it you think that every little
brick is being painted very distinctly
absolutely not when you look at it it's
a texture which gives you the sense of
all this brickwork not every little
brick and so he's creating this movement
throughout the whole surface of the
painting by this technique of painting
wet-in-wet
it's quite ingenious there's illusion of
texture in Vermeer's work the most
extraordinary textural effects are
probably in the view of Delft and I
think the view of Delft is really
amazing because there's a view of this
city seen from across the waterway and
across the harbor and yet it seems so
immediate so real there's something so
intense about that view that it just
comes out at you and it's color with its
light but it's really texture that is at
the core that and any does lots of
different things to create this effect
in this painting one of the amazing
things if you look at the roof lines the
different types of roofs
the orange tile roofs on the left for
example have a kind of a bumpy character
that he creates by having a sand layer
mixed with LED white underneath the
paint so it's a lumpy base specific to
that area so he very consciously wanted
to create the effect of texture three
dimensionally and then he puts on it the
orange and little highlights on top of
little little dots on top of it then
when it comes to the boats this
wonderful feeling of light flickering
off the water onto the sides of the
boats that he does without any
three-dimensional texture but with all
his handling of paint with these various
diffused layers these little circles
these diffuse highlights and then the
opaque highlights on top of very
interweaving of thin and thick and then
thick it's different in different parts
of the painting but it's all to serve a
certain effect
it's really interesting the
photographing for me because everything
always seems out of focus it's one of
these changes things and even restorers
have been bothered by this and this
painting alone writing letters is a
wonderful example where when we brought
it into restoration the arm was in fact
quite precise and definition and we
discovered that in fact the restorer had
made a contour line along that arms to
make it defined in space sort of losing
the whole quality of life that Vermeer
is creating that is so unlike Philly and
Vermeer did not create hard edges they
were all soft and this repaint was quite
clearly much later than Vermeer and
having established that this paint was
false it was removed very easily with no
damage to the underlying and there you
see this typical lovely soft edge to her
arm as she leans rather she caresses the
table in the same way that she's
caressing letters the letter which she's
writing is the most intimate quiet
painting in fact I think it's the most
quiet soulful of all of his paintings
it's as far as I'm concerned
part of the magic infirmary's to create
more than he then he actually is put
down it could be the sense of more there
than there is and that happens a lot
with color and color he uses colors so
selectively and you feel this wonderful
yellow of her jacket but when you look
at it carefully you see and in fact that
there's very little yellow there it's
only in those highlights where the light
is hitting the form that he's actually
using the lead tin yellow to give that
focus for the rest it's really done an
okras it's very subtle very understated
and this is something that he does
throughout his career it's it's this
suggestion of form suggestion of color
suggestion of space done with the most
minimum means suggestion of narrative
suggestion of emotional energy
the feeling of mood is is just the hints
of these things so what happens then is
that we complete them
he leaves lots of room for us to enter
into these things and for us to become
part of the whole experience to create
it to fulfill it to finish it in our own
individual ways Vermeer is a man of
great dignity and we see it in in his
mature works in a beautiful way the
servants are as dignified as the
mistress of the household and the
milkmaid is to me a masterwork and it's
a serving woman that he's representing
there is that the dignity of humankind
because it doesn't embrace all of him
but it's the dignity of women I love it
and I love women but there is this
wonderful sense of his love of women
which comes through on every occasion
none of his women are hard none of them
are angry in any way they're all
concerned with fairly deadly occupation
very gentle very warm occupations that
he seemed to enjoy to me one of the most
moving pictures most poetic pictures by
Vermeer is a painting in Berlin of a
woman putting on a necklace in that
gesture of a woman doing nothing but
just about to clasp the pearl necklace
that's something no writer can know if
you know you can only see a woman put on
a necklace but to have captured that
moment at me it's one of those beautiful
things that Vermeer ever created it's
the life of women that he's painting
men don't come in very often but women
reading a letter we've been writing a
letter woman delivering a letter this
quiet existence of women that's much of
the poetry of Vermeer
what makes a Vermeer Vermeer that's a
very difficult question I've been
worrying about that question for about
60 years
for me it is that extraordinary quality
that he has of inviting you in and
keeping you away that an enigmatic
feeling that he creates he is telling
you a story and yet there's almost like
a veil between you and the painting
there is not an immediacy between you
and the painting although you're fooled
into thinking there is one something so
personal about a Vermeer painting it's
one of these kinds of images that you
really want to see all by yourself you
don't want to be interrupted you don't
want to hear noises around you oh you
can't put it into words really just as
you when you see a great baseball player
whose forms fabulous what makes them so
great or there's great cook and you have
a great meal what makes it so great well
you can talk a bit about it but there's
always something you can't put into
words he raises these scenes of life
into something that is very very special
how come that our milk may just pouring
milk into a jug can produce this moment
of magic on a canvas this extraordinary
sense of light and moment in which you
feel there's so much depth there is so
much more than just this simple domestic
act and he raises up these these
pictures into this into this ethereal
level which is very hard for us to
comprehend comprehend and he really is a
genius
at making these seems quite magical in
quite mysterious at the same time it's
so universal something about that image
that is meaningful to all of humanity
there's truths the underlying truth if
they're fundamental truths about human
existence they're our sense of harmony
of life relationship of man and nature
the joy of life the sense of of
possibility in such an understated and
subtle way
that's
you just come back to it over and over
again and just feel enriched by the experience.
What makes a Vermeer of Vermeer? Perhaps there is no single answer
but rather it is a combination of answers which is different for each and every one of us.
This is at the very heart of what seeing
is all about.
