Project 2: Room and Narrative

Johannes Vermeer

Dutch Borque painter Johannes Vermeer specialised in domestic interior, portraits of city views and middle class living. His paintings were renowned for his use of light throughout his works, seemingly detailing every texture by using bright colours and expensive pigments. His works generally show a similarity from Fabritius works, which suggested that he may have been Vermeer’s teacher, likewise it was also thought that Vermeer had taught himself given the information from one of his father’s connections, as some may say that he may have been taught by a catholic artist Abraham Bloemaert.

It was believed that Vermeer had carefully studied his home town as preference to his most famous painting the Delft. He mostly painted domestic interior scenes where windows would normally be seen to the left, which is characterised by light and shadow and a serene sense of compositional balance and the space within the room. Themes often seen throughout his paintings were musical, religious, poetical and scientific through a seventeenth century Dutch style painting. Vermeer essentially uses a cool palette of colours throughout his artworks, where we continually see blue, yellow and grey as the dominant colours in most of his paintings, yet allows us to see the warmth by the compositional balance of light and shadow. His artworks a very poetic in the sense it highlights seventeenth century middle class lifestyle often portrayed by servants, merchantmen or even the more high class and rich notables. These present a poetic meaning, given the whole composition of the whole painting.

There were only three of Vermeer’s paintings which were dated; The Procuress (1656), The Astronomer (1668), and The Geographer (1669). Vermeer’s paintings weren’t rediscovered until the nineteenth century by Gistav Waagen who had published attributes on Vermeer, and later acknowledged him as one of the greatest artists of the Dutch golden age.

The Music Lesson:

Originally I had chosen Vermeer's painting entitled 'The music lesson' for this assignment. The keys points I got out of this painting were focus between the male and women figure in the painting. The relationship between them was the focal point in which allowed me to think of a space relating to their relationship between the space around them and the bond between the two. The male and female seemingly looks fairly hidden as opposed to the woman turning her back and both figures standing behind other components of the painting, This highlights a hidden love relationship between the two. Vermeer highlights that 'Music is a compansionship' yet music is what allows you to be in your own world, this essentially gives meaning that music may have been the reason of their growing relationship. This relationship is bounded within a room, excluding reality around them.

My initial idea was to create a space that allows us to see the connection between their relationship being hidden as assessed by the figures situated behind furniture and the notion that the relationship is kept hidden. The thought of creating a room that allows us to see the two main figures enclosed in a space, hidden from the outside world. The windows in the painting are very tall with very little detail suggest a hidden relationship. I thought of a room being suspended and hidden by a tall space around it explore the narrative behind the painting. With my sketches I thought of creating a room for each figure and a hidden room between them which allows us to see the relationship between the two which instigates a loving relationship and the idea of creating a music room as the hidden space as 'Music is what brings them together'.

Draft Sketches: