10. Delft artists influencing Vermeer.

Part of an essay on Vermeer, brain channels, neural stimulus, visual perception and art appreciation

A 20,000-word essay on the interface between the fields of Vermeer, Art History and cognitive science, neuroscience and neuresthetics

written by Vermeer specialist, art historian Drs. Kees Kaldenbach, Amsterdam.

Chapters:

1) Foreword
2) Introduction and terminology. houding, perception of reality, realism, illusionism and trompe l’oeil
3) Understanding Vermeer’s Perception of Reality; a Discussion of Characteristics
4) Brain and colour
5) Form as registered by the brain
6) Facial recognition, depth, movement, fine vs broad
7) Using this knowledge in studying and appreciating Vermeer
8) Workshop matters, Painters’ Supplies, Palette, The fijnschilder style versus the loose style, fourteen Qualities listed by Philips Angel
9) Naturalness, enticing the viewers
10) Delft artists influencing Vermeer
11) Vermeers Early, Middle, Late period. Camera Obscura
12) Vermeer’s World of Interiors: a Reality or a Construction
13) Landmark Vermeer literature (in print on paper form)
14) Digital Art History Studies and Presentations on Questions - on Perception of Reality in Vermeer Paintings
15) External CD-Rom, DVD, film material on Vermeer
16) Selected Bibliography

Updated June 9, 2016. Updated 15 February 2017.

3.7. Delft artists influencing Vermeer

Who was the master who taught Vermeer to become a painter, from the age of 13 to the age of about 18? This has remained one of the central mysteries in Vermeer studies. With regard to Vermeer’s early style various candidates have been proposed as masters such as the Delft painters Leonard Bramer (1596-1674) and the much younger Carel Fabritius (1622-1654). If he was trained elsewhere in Holland Jacob van Loo (1614-1670)
Seems a proper a candidate from a stylistic point of view.

Delft, being a walled and fortified garrison town, was chosen by William of Orange as his residence and seat of government during the long wartime years. William of Orange lead the revolt against the King of Spain from the fortified town of Delft – and he was shot in Delft in 1584. After William’s death the seat of government was shifted to nearby The Hague.
During the first half of the seventeenth century the Delft artistic environment was rather conservative, dominated as it was by its main portrait artist Michiel van Mierevelt (1567-1641) who served the Court of Orange and the City magistrates.
Within this rather provincial and artistically backward town of Delft a revolutionary change was realized by a small group of painters who specialized in church interiors. Pivotal was Gerard Houckgeest (circa 1600-1661) who may have studied with Bartholomeus van Bassen (1590-1652) and thus became a painter of architectural perspectives, notably of church interiors. A wealthy gentleman, Houckgeest probably had already worked for the Court of the Princes of Orange and for the Staten Generaal, the national government in The Hague. He became the great innovator in the Delft art scene. His new diagonal viewpoints yielding dramatic viewpoints towards actual funerary monuments sparked a flurry of activity among Delft artists. This meant a move away from the usual imaginary views along the central axis of of grand church interiors towards actual perspective views within local churches. The wonderfully realistic painting now in the Hamburg Kunsthalle, is quite high in luminosity key. The diagonal view presented in this painting probably formed the artistic spark, which started this important artistic direction.

Another Delft painter of a much older generation was rather offbeat in his artistic endeavours. Leonard Bramer (1596-1674) was a history painter, and also landscape and portrait painter. A prolific draughtsman and painter, his works often show night scenes lit by flares of open fires. What made him stand out in Delft was his experience from his Italian sojourn from 1614 to before 1628, in which he succeeded mastering the fresco technique. Enrolled in the Delft Guild of St. Luke in 1629, he finally became headman in 1661, 1663, 1665. His success in society also earned him the post of Sergeant in the Civic Guard; he was also contracted by the City Magistrate for upkeep of paintings in the Doelen (Civic Guards) building.

Delft artists analysed the effects of distortion produced by various optical devices (the camera obscura being one of them) and studied changes in the intensity of light and luminosity of colour presented by these devices. Within two years this lust for experimentation yielded amazing results in a small group of Delft artists. Foremost amongst this group is history, perspective and still life painter Carel Fabritius (1622-1654) who entered the Guild of St. Luke in 1652. His startling View of Delft with a Music Instrument Dealer (Nat.Gall., London) shows a view towards the back of the New Church, the perspective of the scene distorted to incorporate a wide angle of ca. 120 degrees.
Another artist who freely experimented with perspective for expressive purposes was the landscape and townscape painter Daniel Vosmaer (1622-after 1666), who entered in the Guild of St. Luke in 1650. In 1663 he produced a large canvas with a View of Delft from a Fantasy Loggia, (Prinsenhof, Delft) which is fascinating in that the painter successfully showed the luminous Delft whereas he floundered in technical points of perspective in depicting the loggia ceiling and its tiled floor. This work gives us an idea of the mastery of the wall and ceiling paintings by Carel Fabritius, which were applied in various Delft homes. One was in the home of surgeon Theodorus Vallensis (1612-1673) at Oude Delft canal. All of these frescoes have become lost in the course of time.

Both Carel Fabritius and Daniel Vosmaer set new standards for a group of gifted artists, which included the upcoming genre painter Pieter de Hooch (1629-1684). De Hooch moved to Delft before 1652 and was to stay in Delft for almost ten years of his active life before moving on to Amsterdam. In his Delft period, De Hooch produced scores of unparalleled paintings, mainly of refined burghers and their personnel or children, positioned in either light filled rooms or courtyards. For such a tremendous success to occur within Delft there must have been just the right critical mass of artistic drive and painterly know-how and the right formula of patronage within the art market.

In this exciting atmosphere of artistic competence and competition for new ways of depicting life, applying optimal illusionistic effects, Johannes Vermeer entered the Delft scene. Upon his enrolment in the Delft Guild of St Luke Vermeer paid the meesterrecht fee for a local, born in Delft. [1]

Note

[1] Soutendam 1870: 452.
• Een Inboorling f 6.-.- [entry fee due for a master born in Delft]
• Een Vreemdeling f 12.-.- [due for a master born outside of Delft]
• Een Meesterszoon. f 3.-.- [due for a master's son born in Delft]
• Een schilder, zonder Kunstoefening. f 1.5.- [due for a house painter, painter-in-the-rough, without art training]
His father had himself become member of the guild: “Den 13 October 1631 heeft REIJNIER VOS off REIJNIER VAN DER MINNE hem doen aenteijckenen als Mr. Constvercoper, sijnde burger, sal betalen het recht 6 gulden.”
Vermeer himself entered the guild later on, paying six guilders in two instalments. : Schilder. Den 29 December 1653 JOHANNIS VERMEER] heft hem doen aenteijkenen als meester Schilder, sijnde burger en heeft op sijn meester geldt betaelt 1 gul. 10 stuyv. rest 4 gul. 10 st. Den 24 July 1656 in alles betaelt. See the web site www.johannesvermeer.info

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Written 2002-2003. Published online, July 17, 2011. Updated July 17, 2011.

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