Renaissance and the Golden Dutch Age

 Week 17 - 28/01/21

Vermeer, The Milkmaid, 1658-1660

Johannes Vermeer, a Dutch 17th century painter, was a very notable painter from the Golden Dutch Age of portraiture. He is well known for his few, but masterfully created, middle class interior scenes that mainly feature women. The most well known examples of his work include Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Milkmaid, the latter being the painting I have chosen to study today.

The Milkmaid, painted around 1658-1660, is an oil painting depicting maid peacefully pouring milk from a jug into a bowl with surrounding items on the table. The scene also includes a basket on the wall, foot warmer on the floor and small image of Cupid on the tiling next to it.

It is well thought that the inclusion of Cupid and the subject of the maid herself - socially thought to have a lustful attitude during the time period - create a theme of arousal and intimacy in this piece. The maid appears tranquil and attentive of her actions. The stillness in the piece is resonated throughout the whole image with the only moving things being the milk and the maid, who seems slow and quiet.

Compositionally, this piece is made up by a triangle and a diagonal, the triangle flowing upwards and pointing into the middle where the maid's face is. The foot warmer and basket then plays into the secondary focal point, that being the milk jug itself, you can draw a rough line through these and see that the jug lies in around the middle ground. This line is further emphasised by the angle of the apron, corner of the table and the positioning of the hands.

The composition of this piece is also backed by the lighting, this again helps the diagonal line with the shadow from the basket, but also a beam of light focuses on the table and maid's body in the midst of the shadow from the opposing wall.

One of the most striking things about this piece is perhaps the colour scheme, the use of the saturated blue and pale yellows supported by some deep orange/reds is very carefully used and expertly separated to a suitable amount. These saturated colours contrast the pale wall around the main features which allows them to stand out but also provides another step of realism in this piece. It is mentioned that getting the realism in these white walls was difficult for artists at the time, so the realistic light reflectivity and nuances in the texture is extremely impressive and controlled by Vermeer. The cleanliness of the white creates a cool tone on the piece, emphasised by the cold, bright white on the window and obvious nature of the blue. It creates a subtle yet effective clean and sparkling effect on the piece which connotates water, relating back to the still, tranquil nature of the piece in general.

VERMEER, J., 1658-1660. The Milkmaid [image] Available at: 

<https://www.artsy.net/artwork/johannes-vermeer-the-milkmaid> [Accessed 28 January 2021]