Irene Netta

Art historian Irene Netta centers her book on the seventeenth-century world of Vermeer and his native city, Delft. We are given in five short essays a singular portrait of the manner in which Vermeer lived and painted. This handsome book part of Pegasus Library includes many full-page color reproductions and an index of all thirty-five of the great artist’s work. To share a small taste, here are author quotes coupled with my modest comments:

“Vermeer’s few surviving paintings hardly tell us anything about his life, his personality or his artistic development. In all, only thirty-five paintings have been ascribed to him today.” ---------- The mystery surrounding Vermeer and his personal life shares much in common both with those anonymous artisans who created their magnificent sculptures as part of medieval cathedrals and also the ancient prehistoric cave paintings. Such is the magic of art – an aura of mystery adds rather than detracts from the work.

“The detachment of his works and the peaceful solitude of his interiors are all the more surprising given that more than ten children lived in the artist’s home. Everyday life there must have been rather hectic, yet the artist seems to have banished disruption of any kind from the domestic scenes he portrays in his paintings.” -------- Living in a house with ten kids! Vermeer must have relished the opportunity to move from domestic cacophony into his studio, a world of peace and quiet.

“Even where a window is open, as in Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, no noise at all from the street seems to disturb the room." ---------- Curiously, such quietude parallels the relative noiselessness of visiting a museum to view his work.


“Vermeer’s preeminence as an artist is additionally due to his superior ingenuity as a painter and the meticulousness with which he not only reproduces what he sees in terms of the art of his day but also how he modifies it to suit his own ideas and almost imperceptibly manipulates the way the onlooker views his paintings.” --------- Two features of his work that have enthralled millions for nearly four hundred years: Vermeer’s exquisite meticulousness and his ability to subtly guide the viewer’s eye.

“Vermeer worked very slowly on a painting, often taking several years to finish it.” ---------- Perhaps you have seen the film Tim’s Vermeer? Maybe such a time-consuming technique accounts for the time required to complete a painting.


“Vermeer’s use of light is based on compositional considerations and is used to define material qualities. There probably never was such a day as the one depicted in View of Delft. The location may be real, but the situation is not. In this painting Vermeer removes his hometown to another unearthly world beyond the human dimensions of time. ---------- Has there ever been a modern painter who has more perfectly captured on canvas what we instinctively recognize as eternal beauty?

“Vermeer obviously took great care when reproducing details of life. He lavishes so much attention on each small section and has such high regard for them all that anyone could be removed from its context and could form a picture in its own right with its own meaning.” ----------- A particular enhancement to his work: lavishing so much attention of detail; bestowing such grace to a rug, a fold in a dress, an earlobe, as if each of these details was the most important thing in the world. Actually, for painters, this is a truism – the most important thing in the world at any particular moment is what they are beholding, paintbrush in hand, at that very moment.


“Neither the painting’s subject nor any anecdotal asides should distract us from Vermeer’s main concern, the painting itself, art, composition, colors, detail and the effect they can have on the human soul.” ---------- With the painting esteemed to possess more value than life itself, we hear echoes of what would become known as romanticism.

“Vermeer’s image originates in his mind’s eye which takes in reality as if seen through a spiritual filter, changes it into an image in its own right, composes it anew and intensifies it.” ----------- The two noble tasks of the visual arts: not only to perceive but transform the world through creative vision.

… (meer)

Art historian Irene Netta centers her book on the seventeenth-century world of Vermeer and his native city, Delft. We are given in five short essays a singular portrait of the manner in which Vermeer lived and painted. This handsome book part of Pegasus Library includes many full-page color reproductions and an index of all thirty-five of the great artist’s work. To share a small taste, here are author quotes coupled with my modest comments:

“Vermeer’s few surviving paintings hardly tell us anything about his life, his personality or his artistic development. In all, only thirty-five paintings have been ascribed to him today.” ---------- The mystery surrounding Vermeer and his personal life shares much in common both with those anonymous artisans who created their magnificent sculptures as part of medieval cathedrals and also the ancient prehistoric cave paintings. Such is the magic of art – an aura of mystery adds rather than detracts from the work.

“The detachment of his works and the peaceful solitude of his interiors are all the more surprising given that more than ten children lived in the artist’s home. Everyday life there must have been rather hectic, yet the artist seems to have banished disruption of any kind from the domestic scenes he portrays in his paintings.” -------- Living in a house with ten kids! Vermeer must have relished the opportunity to move from domestic cacophony into his studio, a world of peace and quiet.

“Even where a window is open, as in Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, no noise at all from the street seems to disturb the room." ---------- Curiously, such quietude parallels the relative noiselessness of visiting a museum to view his work.


“Vermeer’s preeminence as an artist is additionally due to his superior ingenuity as a painter and the meticulousness with which he not only reproduces what he sees in terms of the art of his day but also how he modifies it to suit his own ideas and almost imperceptibly manipulates the way the onlooker views his paintings.” --------- Two features of his work that have enthralled millions for nearly four hundred years: Vermeer’s exquisite meticulousness and his ability to subtly guide the viewer’s eye.

“Vermeer worked very slowly on a painting, often taking several years to finish it.” ---------- Perhaps you have seen the film Tim’s Vermeer? Maybe such a time-consuming technique accounts for the time required to complete a painting.


“Vermeer’s use of light is based on compositional considerations and is used to define material qualities. There probably never was such a day as the one depicted in View of Delft. The location may be real, but the situation is not. In this painting Vermeer removes his hometown to another unearthly world beyond the human dimensions of time. ---------- Has there ever been a modern painter who has more perfectly captured on canvas what we instinctively recognize as eternal beauty?

“Vermeer obviously took great care when reproducing details of life. He lavishes so much attention on each small section and has such high regard for them all that anyone could be removed from its context and could form a picture in its own right with its own meaning.” ----------- A particular enhancement to his work: lavishing so much attention of detail; bestowing such grace to a rug, a fold in a dress, an earlobe, as if each of these details was the most important thing in the world. Actually, for painters, this is a truism – the most important thing in the world at any particular moment is what they are beholding, paintbrush in hand, at that very moment.


“Neither the painting’s subject nor any anecdotal asides should distract us from Vermeer’s main concern, the painting itself, art, composition, colors, detail and the effect they can have on the human soul.” ---------- With the painting esteemed to possess more value than life itself, we hear echoes of what would become known as romanticism.

“Vermeer’s image originates in his mind’s eye which takes in reality as if seen through a spiritual filter, changes it into an image in its own right, composes it anew and intensifies it.” ----------- The two noble tasks of the visual arts: not only to perceive but transform the world through creative vision.

… (meer)