Il colore luce

Abstract

Light plays a prominent role in the painting of Jan Vermeer (1632-1675). In the interiors he paints, light enters discreetly as a gift. Light seems to create what it makes visible. Everyday life, which is the dominant theme in the Delft master’s work, is portrayed with a profound religiousness. Vermeer regards the sacred as life itself. It is as if life were taken by surprise, thanks to Vermeer’s ability to seize the moment. A theatrical sagacity allows the artist to fix the moment. One might better call it a ‘cinematographic’ sagacity. This is the main condition for memorability, for Vermeer’s paintings are deeply remembered like few others. The artist’s work is guided by the credibility of what is depicted. Vermeer thus achieves a double result. On the one hand, he makes concrete moments in the lives of the depicted characters, who are mostly young women. On the other, he effectively documents the flourishing historical and geographical context of 17th century Holland. How does beauty work in all this? It is the humanity of the characters that becomes beauty. Like few other painters Vermeer succeeds in bringing out the inner beauty of the person depicted. His painting Girl with a turban is one of his masterpieces: it is like a flash of lightning that goes through us.