Johannes Vermeer died on this day, in 1675

Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) passed away on this day December 15th, 1675.

He was 43 years old.

Vermeer’s small oeuvre is remarkable.

It is estimated that Vermeer created around 40 to 50 paintings, which is not a big number compared to other master painters of the time.

For example, Rembrandt made around 300 paintings and Frans Hals around 200.

7 masterpieces at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Frederick Carl Frieseke | The House in Giverny, 1912

When Frieseke first settled at Giverny in 1906, he stayed at Le Hameau (the hamlet) on the rue du Pressoir.

The two-story cottage surrounded by high walls on three sides enclosing a garden was next door to the home of Claude Monet and had previously been occupied by the American artist Lilla Cabot Perry.

The house shown in The House in Giverny, however, is most likely the Whitman house, the second of Frieseke's three Giverny residences.

Its green shutters and the distinctive open lattice-work of green trellises laden with flowers appear in a number of Frieseke's paintings, including Lilies, Tea Time in a Giverny Garden (both Daniel J. Terra Collection) and Hollyhocks, c. 1912-1913 (Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection).

The intimacy of Frieseke's small painting and his interest in decorative pattern links the artist more closely with the Nabi painters Vuillard and Bonnard than to his neighbour Monet or with Renoir, the French Impressionist he most admired.

The artist stated his creed published in a 1914 interview: "My one idea is to reproduce flowers in sunlight.

I do not suggest detail by form, as I have to keep it as pure as possible or the effect of brilliancy will be lost.

Of course, there is a limit to the strength of pigments, and one can but relatively give the impression of nature. I may see a glare of white light at noon, but I cannot render it literally [...]

I usually make my first notes and impressions with dashes of tempera, then I paint over this with small strokes in oil to produce the effect of vibration, completing as I go". | Source: © Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Frederick Carl Frieseke (American, 1874-1939) | The House in Giverny, 1912 | Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Christopher Marlowe | Vieni a vivere con me e sii il mio amore / The passionate shepherd to his Love, 1599

"The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" (1599), by Christopher Marlowe (English playwright, poet, and translator of the Elizabethan era, 1564-1593), is a pastoral poem from the English Renaissance (1485–1603).

Marlowe composed the poem in iambic tetrameter (four feet of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable) in six stanzas, and each stanza is composed of two rhyming couplets; thus the first line of the poem reads: "Come live with me and be my love".

Come live with me, and be my love;

And we will all the pleasures prove

That hills and valleys, dales and fields,

Woods, or steepy mountains yields.

Walter Crane | The Passionate Shepherd to his Love illustration

Johannes Vermeer | View of Houses in Delft, 1658

View of Houses in Delft / Het Straatje, known as 'The Little Street' is an unusual painting in Vermeer’s oeuvre, and remarkable for its time as a portrait of ordinary houses.

The composition is as exciting as it is balanced.

The old walls with their bricks, whitewash, and cracks are almost tangible.

The location is Vlamingstraat 40-42 in Delft.

Vermeer’s aunt Ariaentgen Claes lived in the house at the right, with her children, from around 1645 until her death in 1670. | Source: © Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Ludovico Carracci | The penitent Saint Peter, 1613

Although mentioned by Ludovico's earliest biographer Malvasia as early as 1678, all trace of this monumental and imposing image of repentance was lost until its rediscovery only thirty years ago.

Malvasia recorded how Ludovico had given to Count Camillo Bolognetti, a nobleman and occasional amateur painter in the Carracci workshop, 'la figura intera di quel S. Pietro piangente, così risentito e terribile'.

In a handwritten note included in the 1841 edition of his Felsina pittrice the picture is referred to as 'San Pietro piangente l'aversi negato discepolo di Cristo, figura sedente, meno del naturale'.

Jean-Baptiste Greuze | Le uova rotte, 1756

Anche se questo dipinto venne eseguito a Roma e presenta ambiente e costumi italiani, la fonte del soggetto ritratto è un quadro olandese del Seicento dell’artista Frans van Mieris il Vecchio (1635-1681), Le uova rotte (Museo dell’Ermitage, San Pietroburgo), che l'artista francese Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) conosceva attraverso un’ incisione.

Le uova rotte simboleggiano la perdita della verginità.

Il bambino che cerca di ricomporre le uova rappresenta l’ignara innocenza dell’infanzia.

Il quadro suscitò una reazione favorevole quando fu esibito al Salon di Parigi nel 1757. | © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jean Baptiste Greuze | Broken Eggs, 1756 (detail) | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rembrandt's palette

Technical investigation of Rembrandt's (1606-1669) paintings in the possession of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister and in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Kassel) was conducted by Hermann Kühn in 1977.

The pigment analyses of some thirty paintings have shown that Rembrandt's palette consisted of the following pigments: lead white, various ochres, Vandyke brown, bone black, charcoal black, lamp black, vermilion, madder lake, azurite, ultramarine, yellow lake and lead-tin-yellow.

Synthetic orpiment was shown in the shadows of the sleeve of the jewish groom.

Peter Paul Rubens | Christ Risen, 1616

"Christ Risen", "The Easter Tomb" or "The Triumph of Christ over Death and Sin" is a painting by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), executed c. 1616.

It entered the collection of Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany between 1713 and 1723 and is now in the Palatine Gallery of the Palazzo Pitti in Florence.

Martin Desjardins | The Four Captives, 1682-1686

The "Louis XIV Victory Monument", also known as "Four Prisoners" or "Four Defeated Nations", was an elaborate trophy memorial celebrating the military and domestic successes of the early decades of Louis XIV's personal rule, primarily those during the Franco-Dutch War of 1672–1678, on the Place des Victoires (Victories' Square) in central Paris.

It was designed and sculpted by Martin Desjardins (French sculptor and stuccoist of Dutch birth, 1637-1694) between 1682-1686 on a commission by François d'Aubusson, Duke of La Feuillade.

Martin Desjardins | Spain or Hope (detail) | Louvre Museum

Rembrandt | The Artist's Mother, 1629 | Royal Collection

"An old Woman called 'The Artist's Mother'" by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) is a study in old age by a young, aspiring painter who rapidly gained a reputation for this kind of work before moving to Amsterdam to develop his career as a portraitist and history painter.

Executed towards the end of his time in Leiden (c.1629), this painting already reveals Rembrandt’s mastery of precise detail in the treatment of the folds of skin, the sunken eyes, the taut mouth and the prominent nose.

Rembrandt | The Artist's Mother, 1629 | Royal Collection

Il Salon di Parigi (1667-1890)

A partire dal 1667, Il Salon de Paris fu la mostra d'arte ufficiale dell'Académie des Beaux-Arts di Parigi.

Per quasi 150 anni (1740-1890 ca.), il Salon è stato l'evento artistico annuale o biennale più prestigioso al mondo.

Di conseguenza, la sua influenza sulla pittura francese - in particolare lo stile artistico, le convenzioni pittoriche e la reputazione degli artisti - fu enorme.

Al Salon del 1761 contribuirono trentatré pittori, nove scultori ed undici incisori.

Dal 1881 in poi, è stato gestito dalla Société des Artistes Français.

Claude Monet | Donna con il parasole - Madame Monet con il figlio, 1875 | Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art

Jusepe de Ribera | Saint Joseph, 1635

Born in Spain, Jusepe de Ribera spent his entire active career in Italy.

He arrived in Spanish-ruled Naples between 1607 and 1614.

Caravaggio’s presence had a profound impact on Neapolitan painting.

Ribera then travelled to Parma, Rome, before settling in Naples.

Jusepe de Ribera | Saint Joseph, 1635 | Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Federico Barocci | Aeneas fleeing Troy / La fuga di Enea da Troia, 1598

Aeneas Fleeing from Troy is a painting by Federico Barocci (Federico Fiori), located in the Borghese Collection in Rome.

History

Considering Barocci’s only attempt at a historical narration, this scene was twice ordered by the Della Rovere family as a gift for their further social connection.

The first, now lost, the artwork was intended for the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Rudolph II.

The second was given to Cardinal Scipione Borghese, adapting the imperial allegory as a scene of the spiritual purity of the Roman Cardinal.

Federico Barocci | Aeneas fleeing Troy, 1598 | Galleria Borghese

Domenico Fetti | David with the Head of Goliath, 1620

Domenico Fetti (1589-1623) was probably born in Rome, where he trained with the Florentine Ludovico Cigoli in the early years of the 17th century and studied the dramatic chiaroscuro of Caravaggio and his followers.

Through Cigoli, Fetti was introduced to Cardinal Ferdinando Gonzaga, who returned to Mantua in 1613 to become Duke Ferdinando II, inviting Fetti to come with him and serve as Court Painter.

In Mantua, Fetti saw the works of Peter Paul Rubens, whose transparent red and blue fleshtones he adopted, as well as the art of Giulio Romano and that of the great Venetian painters of the 16th century, Titian and Tintoretto, whose rich colors and rapid, painterly brushtrokes greatly informed his mature style.

Domenico Fetti | David with the head of Goliath, 1620 (detail) | Hampton Court Palace

Princess Louise Hollandine | Baroque painter

Princess Louise Hollandine of the Palatinate (18 April 1622 - 11 February 1709) was a painter and abbess.

She was a daughter of Frederick V of the Palatinate, the "Winter King" of Bohemia, and Scottish princess Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of King James VI and I.

She is also known for her romantic involvement with the Marquess of Montrose.

Early life

Born in April 1622, Louise Hollandine was born at the Hague Palace in Holland, as her father was living in exile at the court of his uncle, Maurice, Prince of Orange.

It is Ginevra Cantofoli the painter of the masterpiece known as the "Portrait of Beatrice Cenci"!

A long historical tradition has identified Beatrice Cenci in this portrait.

Formerly attributed to Guido Reni, it is now attributed to Italian Baroque painter Ginevra Cantofoli (Bologna 1618-1672).

The girl turns to us with an appealing and innocent gaze that reminds us of her tragic fate.

After years of oppression and abduction in a castle, Beatrice supported by her brothers and stepmother planned the murder of her father, Francesco Cenci, who was a dissolute and deprived man.

Ginevra Cantofoli | Woman in a Turban, 1650 (detail) | Gallerie Nazionali Barberini Corsini, Roma

Louise Moillon | Baroque painter

Louise Moillon (1610-1696) was a French still life painter in the Baroque era.

It is recorded that she became known as one of the best still life painters of her time, as her work was purchased by King Charles I of England, as well as French nobility.

Louise Moillon is also known for her Flemish style that is present in her artwork.

Moillon created about 40 artworks during her lifetime which are held in museums and private collections.

Artemisia Gentileschi | Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy, 1620-25

Until its appearance on the art market in Paris in 2014, this picture was only known from a black-and-white photograph.

It has been hailed as one of the most significant rediscoveries of a work by Artemisia in recent years.

It depicts Mary Magdalene, a follower of Christ, who withdrew to a life of solitary penitence and prayer following his death.

Here the Magdalene, alone in a cave and bathed in light, is in the throes of an ecstatic vision.

Artemisia paints her in a way that suggests a real, physical presence.

Artemisia Gentileschi | Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy, 1620-25 (detail) | The National Gallery, London

Luisa Roldàn | Baroque sculptor

Luisa Roldàn | The Entombment of Christ, 1700-1701 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Entombment is one of the two "jewel-like sculptures" Luisa Roldán gave to the newly installed King Philip V of Spain in 1701, petitioning him to appoint her sculptor to the royal court.

In the previous decade she had pioneered a genre of sculpture - powerfully conceived and exquisitely modelled and painted figural groups, made on a deliberately intimate scale - of which this is perhaps the finest.

Luisa Roldàn | The Entombment of Christ, 1700-1701 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

389th anniversary of Johannes Vermeer's birth

Today’s Doodle celebrates Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, a seminal Baroque artist who is widely regarded among the greatest Dutch painters of all time.

Johannes Vermeer (October 1632 - December 1675) was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. He was a moderately successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime but evidently was not wealthy, leaving his wife and children in debt at his death, perhaps because he produced relatively few paintings.

Vermeer worked slowly and with great care, and frequently used very expensive pigments. He is particularly renowned for his masterly treatment and use of light in his work.
Vermeer painted mostly domestic interior scenes.

"Almost all his paintings are apparently set in two smallish rooms in his house in Delft; they show the same furniture and decorations in various arrangements and they often portray the same people, mostly women".