Word: vermeer
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...name Johannes Vermeer now carries a vast aura of desirability and sweetness. It has become one of the most beloved way points of art history, like Rembrandt, Piero della Francesca or Watteau. Nothing, it seems, is going to change that, but it wasn't always so. Vermeer's reputation is almost wholly posthumous. One of the reasons why he is so admired and his pictures are so unattainable a goal for collectors is precisely the cause of his obscurity in the 19th century: the rarity of his work...
...boldly into the realm of all-inclusive art. Curators choose to place value not on the technique present in each work of art but on the objects importance as a cultural artifact. Does this redefinition mean that a slaves quilt ought to receive the same artistic consideration as a Vermeer or a Raphael? The MFA itself offers few clues. Folk art, according to the MFA, is art for the people by the people, a visual demonstration of America’s democratic values. All Americans, at least in MFA literature, can produce art. Theory aside, “American Folk?...
...What Thoré recognized was the revolutionary in Vermeer - his emphasis on a perfected state of life without external intrusions and noise, his stress on form rather than function and his extraordinary command of perspective. Thoré was writing at the dawn of photography, which helped artists see in a new way. Vermeer, it then became clear, had broken the mold two centuries earlier...
...Today Vermeer is acknowledged as one of the leading artists of the past 500 years. His influence extended to the Impressionists, Marcel Proust - and criminals. Many of his 35 works have been stolen (one, 'The Concert', is still missing), and in the 1930s and '40s a forger named Hans van Meegeren made millions of dollars with at least six high-class fakes before being caught and imprisoned...
...Vermeer might have smiled at Van Meegeren's efforts. Few of his own subjects were original, he was ruthless in his pursuit of objectives, strove for perfection over volume and borrowed ideas liberally. But there any comparison must end. In a Vermeer painting serenity prevails and, as Bailey notes, a viewer is taken into a room and invited to walk around and talk to those present. It is this unique intimacy that ensured Vermeer's reputation over time, and that continues to enthrall...