Renaissance Painting

For this picture, I used the Nikon 1855 mm camera with the aperture F/22 and the shutter speed at 1/60. For this picture, I played with many different lighting sources but I ended up just using one light coming from behind Morgan at an angle that was about the same height as her head.

I chose the painting "Girl with a Pearl Earring" by Johannes Vermeer which is from the "Dutch Golden Age". During the "Dutch Golden Age" there was a decrease in religious paintings because Dutch Calvinism forbid the use of religious art in churches. This period is notable in the art world because of the variety of topics being explored. In this age, some of the genres and categories were a variety of scenes of peasant life, animal landscapes, landscapes, maritime and flower paintings. Another unique part of this period was the "hierarchy of genres" where some types of paintings were considered more distinguished than other types. Other artists were often impressed with the amount of Dutch paintings that were being produced and the large fairs they had to sell them. In a span of 20 years, it is estimated that 1.3 million Dutch paintings were maid. This also caused the price of paintings to be very low with the exception of well-known artists selling for higher prices. Portraits were also in high demand during the period which increased the popularity of the style.

Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch artist who lived in the town of Delft, Netherlands. In 1653 Vermeer got married to a Catholic girl and before the marriage, he converted to Catholicism which, was a decision from his mother-in-law. in 1972 he produced a painting called "The Allegory of Faith" which showed more religious focus than his other paintings. There is no hard evidence to show who Vermeer apprenticed but it is speculated that Carel Fabritius was his teacher, however, the text this was found in is very controversial. It is also suggested that he was self-taught or he trained under Abraham Bloemaert, a Catholic painter. in 1653 Vermeer became a member of the "Guild of Saint Luke" which was a painters association. He did not pay the admission fee but the city was struggling through a plague, a war and an economic crisis. Vermeer was a slow painter. He would produce around 3 paintings a year to order. When a French traveller visited him in 1672 to see his work Vermeer did not have anything to show him so he sent him to a banker in town who had some of his paintings as collateral. In his paintings, Johannes Vermeer followed the artists of his time and used monochromatic colours of mostly greys and browns. To add colour to his paintings he would use saturated glazes in blues, reds and yellows. To get a more realistic look on his paintings he would use earthy tones such as umber and ochre to enhance the light in the backgrounds of paintings.

Girl with a Pearl Earring has been located in The Mauritshuis in the Netherlands since 1902 however, in the past few years the painting has travelled to various museums while the Mauritshuis was restored and renovated. The picture shows a European girl wearing an oriental turban, exotic dress and a large pearl earring. The painting is an oil on canvas and it is signed but not dated. It is estimated it was painted around 1665. The painting was most recently restored in 1994 and the restoration has enhanced the girls gaze and the colours have become more vibrant. Another thing discovered during the restoration is that the background is mottled and the background was intended to be a deep enamel green and not solid black. After discovering this, the people working on the restoration covered the black background in a glaze to give the effect. Girl with a Pearl Earring is a fictional character and she is not meant to be a portrait of anyone. This painting shows how well Vermeer could work with light. The way the face is painted it is apparent that Vermeer was using light, instead of lines to create form and shape on the girls face. The reflection of light on the girl's lips, eyes and on the earring show how attentive to light he was and how important to make a realistic painting it is. Even though it is known that the girl is not a real person it is a mystery as to why it was painted and who or what it is supposed to represent.