In Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum there's the giant and monumental Gallery of Honour.
Some of the most important European paintings ever created are on display there.
Walking around it, seeing those great canvases, sometimes also large in size, like Rembrandt's Night Watch
it's possible to overlook a tiny picture, painted some 360 years ago, on which virtually nothing happens.
This is "The little street" by Vermeer.
But once you notice it, it's hard to stop looking at it.
I will tell you the story why this small painting has been so fascinating to art lovers, like Natalia and me, for over three hundred years,
although for us it has been a couple of years less,
and maybe it'll become fascinating also to you
Stay tuned!
But first, before we stroll down Vermeer's Little Street, I'd like to show you some pictures by another painter
who worked in the same period as Vermeer.
It's possible that Vermeer might have seen some of these paintings.
It's Pieter de Hooch.
He specialized in paintings showing ordinary life of ordinary Dutch people, scenes taking place in the interiors of their homes.
He usually painted one room, but through an open door or window
one can have a glimpse of another room
and perhaps there's another door and another room
and sometimes the perspective reaches so deep into the picture that we see the front door and a fragment of the street.
So at the first sight the picture appears to show a small room, a narrow space and a private scene but
through a series of doors we see the outside world
In this mode many pictures were created. Pieter de Hooch was among the great masters of this style of an interior scene albeit showing a bit of exterior
And now. Enter Vermeer.
He took on this mode, but because he was such a genius artist,
he did it differently.
He paints an ordinary scene in exact reverse.
He doesn't show the inside and through a series of doors a glimpse of the outside
but we look from the outside, and see an open door of a narrow passage
leading to the backyard
and an open front door giving a hint of the interior details
So this is a genre scene - ordinary life of ordinary people - yes,
but exactly vice versa than it was the custom in genre painting.
And this is one of the things, that make Vermeer a great painter.
But it wasn't just his approach to a scene, it also was his great talent for colour and composition.
He framed this scene so that it appears to be accidental.
Neither this house on the left, nor this on the right isn't shown in full, it's cut by the frame on the side and top.
It is like if tourists were riding through the town on a coach and taking photos on the go, through the windows.
It's hard for them to frame correctly what they're aiming at.
Here it's like that - as if Vermeer was just aiming at the house and cropped it by chance rather that intentionally.
But to paint such a picture one has to make a lot of effort
so it's no accident that the buildings are painted cropped by the frame.
Neither of them is the most important, or dominating the composition.
What is most important then?
Maybe the colour scheme?
It is very harmonious. Yes, there are some intensive hues, like the reds and browns of the brickwork
This used to be a lot more green, but some pigments tend to loose their colour over time,
so this portion turned a bit blueish.
There's also this yellowish-grayish portion in the lower part of the picture - a sidewalk.
A stretch of colour that separates the houses from the bottom of the frame.
And finally a pale blue portion of the sky.
So there are warmer tones, cooler tones, darker and lighter, everything is well balanced.
The picture is harmonious, one can argue that it's even melodic in a way.
In Dutch Golden Age Painting of which a prime example is Vermeer himself and this picture in particular, usually
what appeared at first as an ordinary scene, like a genre picture of ordinary people doing ordinary things
would reveal its second meaning afeter closer inspection.
Something that looked ordinary, could convey a hidden message
One can wonder whether the fact that Pieter de Hooch's and Vermeer's paintings have this particular depth,
this deep, inward perspective effects that pull our gaze far into their painterly worlds,
is a suggestion to dig deeper for something that one can overlook at first glance.
To think about the meaning of the painted objects.
Most often these were some ethical or  moral teachings that painters would hide in otherwise meaningless scenes.
Literature or poetry could also be referenced.
It's something that 17th century Dutch collectors liked.
Some of them were highly educated people, profficient in literature and culture
They were looking for hidden references and symbols  in paintings to uncover their true meaning.
So it's hardly any surprise that many scholars also look for such meaning in this picture.
These can't just be two ordinary houses along a little street, but something more -
a means for Vermeer to say something to the viewer.
What can this hidden meaning be?
Some point out the two kids in the foreground and an elderly lady in the doorway, and a possibly middle-aged woman in the backyard,
so maybe it's an allegory of three stages of a person's life: young, mature and old.
Others say that the juxtaposition of playful children and a noble old lady
points to the fact that fun and frivolity in a person's early life must give way the peace and serenity of the old age.
But in my view, what impressed me personally the most in this picture and what for me is the most important thing in it
is the fact, that Vermeer achieved something seemingly impossible, he painted something, that cannot be painted
Tranquility and silence.
It seems that the peculiar way this picture is composed, that neither of the houses is painted in its entirety and neither dominates the other,
nor does the sky take up a large chunk of space, nothing stands out too much,
everything is in just the right amount, plus the colour scheme that is a masterpiece in harmony
is something that makes this picture radient with peace.
The painted figures seem to be caught in a freeze-frame,
but they don't appear to be getting ready to any kind of movement or action.
The elderly lady sewing or embroidering something might have been here for the past hour,
and once Vermeer was done painting, she could've stayed there for even more time.
It is life not only caught in a stand-still, but so tranquil and peaceful when Vermeer painted it.
And for the 17th century Dutch, their home was a peaceful haven.
They believed that a house's treshold is the border behind which they can leave all their sorrows and the town's bustle,
once they enter the house, their soul and mind can finally rest and calm down.
The home was the place for peace and consolation.
To me, this whole painting is about us, the viewers, feeling this tranquility and hearing this silence of a Dutch home.
This is why I couldn't stop staring at it, when I saw it for the first time in the Rijksmuseum,
because I wanted to feel a bit of the peace that's painted in this picture, even though it's hardly possible to paint peace and tranquility.
What makes Vermeer a great artist, and what makes this picture a masterpiece, even though it's so tiny,
is that it seems to say: "Look, one can create very large paintings with monumental religious or historic scenes and tons of people - and it's fine,
it can be a very good execution of the art of painting. But I can paint the most ordinary scene
in such a way that in your eyes it will become extraordinary! And you won't be willing to stop looking at it to feel the radiating peace."
It is possible to paint a tiny picture on an ordinary subject that can be far more grand than all this historic, monumental grandiosity.
Of course scholars were also wondering, whether this scene actually took place, was the painting showing any actual part of Delft from the time of Vermeer.
Or is it just the painter's fantasy? Meant to showcase a mood rather than a place.
Scholars looked in many places in Delft for such a layout of buildings
and a couple of years ago they announced that analysis of archival maps led to the discovery of the exact place
on 42 Vlamingstraat with one smaller house, two parallel passageways, and a larger house.
So it is possisble, that the urban layout that Vermeer painted did in fact exist in real life.
If this identification is correct, there's another interesting fact,
because quite probably this larger house on the right belonged to Vermeer's aunt.
So this is a house with which Vermeer has a personal connection.
The tranquility emanating from this house, from the woman's concentration on her work and the ubiquitous silence
is in fact the tranquility of Vermeer's family's house.
Is this the hidden meaning behind this picture: let's look for peace in family home?
Thank you for watching this video.
Click here to see more films about Dutch Golden Age painting, includied pieces by Vermeer and de Witte
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Thank you and goodbye!
