See with the eyes of a painter, wrote
the philosopher Henri Bergson is to see
better than the common man. The novel
hit by Tracy Chevalier introduced
the misconception that in the magnificent painting
Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring,
it is the pearl attached to the ear of the young
girl who was talking about this famous punctum
Roland Barthes, this little nothing that does everything
and illuminates a scene altogether
rather commonplace. The beautiful film that was shot
the novel insists too heavily on
mouth open, but luscious Scarlett
Johansonn interpreting the title role, this
may explain this. What about the
two fiery eyes of the girl,
that pierce our hearts with their interrogation
worried? It seems in fact to ask
who is this man who puts on it
its heavy look of a painter, and he
may please him ... From Vermeer, one
knows little or nothing. We even forgot
until the late nineteenth century. Forty five
tables perhaps all, fifteen
that would be lost, which would be thirty
identified. What do they represent? The question
As surprising reality is at home immediately
perceptible: women, basically.
A woman near the window or playing
a musical instrument, or writing
a letter, a street scene, nothing but
very mundane. As Malraux wrote,
all minor works by Vermeer are
some orders. Perhaps is it not by
coincidence that in an age when the picture was
King, one of the greatest precursors
modern art lost part of his genius
whenever he did not take one of
his model. His family belonged to him
humanly and artistically. Women,
therefore, THE women of the life of Vermeer. However,
very fast, it feels a disturbing sight
these peaceful events: such silence
can indeed only hide elements
that escape us. There are certainly some
thing we should see and that is hidden
to our eyes, attentive and desperate
in the quest for meaning which relate
our emotion, hidden in these tiny
and precise fragments of everyday life,
these days succeeding others
days, always identical. If "some
thing "exists that would give meaning
what we see is that precisely,
that sense escapes us, that we see the
not because, perhaps, we do NOT want the
see. Perhaps we look at these paintings
with "optical" unsuitable? But how
change? And how to be sure to get
changed? The apparent serenity that we
is shown then becomes a challenge, a provocation.
Observe the Art of Painting, called
Paint or as The Artist's Studio,
a composition whose watercolor missed
Adolf Hitler seized to decorate his
Berchtesgaden eyrie. What do we see?
A painter. Vermeer himself? No, because it
wearing a suit of the previous century, as
so is the map of visible Netherlands
on the table. There is also this young woman
dressed in blue, with his laurel wreath.
Curiously, the painter, seen from behind, begins
his portrait by the crown, as
would a beginner. In front of this painting
interior, yet extremely
brightness, all components likely
feed a consistent interpretation
are apparently united, and meticulously
represented, but at the same time increases
in us the feeling that most us
escapes: look not see (The below
visible). A reflection that leads us
to seek salvation in the details: if
the girl wears a look on the painter
full of irony, is to express
has in vain and ridiculous the will of
represent reality, to imitate
people and things? The subject of the paintings
Vermeer would it not need
or the inevitability of silence? Meaning
the passage of time, which precisely gives his
meaning these beings and these things.
As Nietzsche wrote about
Sophocles: "His mask banality depth,
but its depth makes it forget the banality ... "
