Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 1, 1908.djvu/604

 580 JOHANNES VERMEER SECT. His few allegories on the New Testament and on painting are unsuccess- ful ; they are empty and tiresome. TJhe colour and the lighting are the two great qualities which have made Vermeer one of the most popular and most treasured painters of the Dutch school. He develops the principles of light and shade in an entirely original way. His figures, for the most part, stand out dark against a wall strongly illumined by daylight, or they are brilliantly , lighted against a dark background. In both cases they are enveloped in llight and air, and thus have an extraordinarily plastic effect. The whitewashed walls and the numerous objects whose polished surfaces reflect light, such as gilt frames, metal chandeliers, porcelain jugs, varnished maps, help to increase the charm of the effect of lighting, just as the Gobelins tapestry or table-covers of Eastern carpets, the painted glass, and other things of the kind, create in combination with the costumes of the figures that wonderful harmony of colour for which the artist has become famous and popular. His favourite colour-scheme is a strong blue with a vivid lemon-yellow, but he does not avoid other com- binations. And his white always has a luminous quality that is unique. It is a peculiarity of the master that, while painting, he always sat very close to his model. For that reason a foreground is often wanting, and the figures and objects seen farther back are reduced in a very steep perspective. Vermeer very seldom introduces into his pictures those vistas from one room into another, of which Pieter de Hooch, so closely related to him in many ways, is especially fond ; he paints very few genre-scenes in the open air. Yet the two views of towns which Vermeer has left are among the most remarkable creations of Dutch painting. They possess the same qualities of colour, atmosphere, and light that dis- tinguish the interiors. A sky such as that of the "View of Delft," at the Mauritshuis, cannot be paralleled elsewhere in art. NOTE. The numbers added to some titles in the following catalogue refer to the earlier catalogues of Vermeer's work by Burger (B.) and Havard (H.). See the comparative table at the end.