Alberti’s On Painting is an important piece about paintings and many painters were influenced by his ideas in various periods, so that it may be considered as the first modern treatise on paintings. His ideas established some rules for paintings in terms of three-dimensional subject. We all read Alberti's ideas in On Painting about how details enrich the painting and how those details are also crucial for the painters, so that I want to explore the details on both Vermeer's painting, The Milkmaid. Actually, I do not sure whether Vermeer was actually influenced by Alberti's ideas or not, but I like Vermeer's paintings quite much and I found some similarities between Alberti's ideas for Italian paintings and Vermeer's Dutch style on The Milkmaid, and I want to share those similarities with you.
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| The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer |
The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer was painted in 17th century. This work of art of Johannes Vermeer is considered as a great example of Dutch realist genre painting with especially its simple details. Also, Alberti's ideas in On Painting are in the direction of realism. Besides that the maid is pouring the milk, this painting is contributed with some ordinary items of that era; such as kitchen pieces. The vessels, the bread in the basket, and the pieces of bread on the table contribute Vermeer's realist style with details.
As Alberti suggests in his treatise, Vermeer uses various colours in his work of art. His palette features a toned down colour scheme of white, yellow, and blue. However, he prefered to use just one person in his painting, instead of various people, and the milkmaid is worn by clothes. Vermeer chose to use different colours (especially blue tones) in milkmaid's clothes and the tablecloth, so that this painting is freed by one-coloured work because in the background of the painting, there is used a soft tone of the mixture of brown and gray, and these colours let-up the painting as long as it is encoloured by different colours. Actually, it is the same colour of the wall in the background but Vermeer uses shading and that shade changes the colour of the wall with soft transmission. In On Painting, as Alberti said; "It is evident that colours vary according to light, as every colour appears different when in shade and when placed under rays of light. Shade makes a colour look dimmer, and light makes it bright and clear" (44). He perfectly uses the transmission between colours, as Alberti recommends. Also, the milkmaid acts natural in this painting, instead of posing or just standing here. Her face is positioned harmoniously and she it is completely proper in terms of size, dimension, function, type and colour that Alberti suggests. Moreover, he also uses the mathematical perspectives in a proper way, so that he is also influenced in terms of this aspect by Alberti. Actually, Vermeer uses camera obscure for capturing the details in a realistic way in his works. I watched a film about Vermeer's painting techniques before a year ago, Tim's Vermeer. In short, his successful perspectives in his paintings are suitable for Alberti's ideas. In addition, Vermeer did not pass over the background details as Alberti wants. For example, he paints a well-detailed basket and the mysterious box on the floor in the background of this painting.
In a nutshell, while I was reading the rules that were established by Alberti in his book, Vermeer's paintings occured my mind and I compared his works with Alberti's ideas. Thus, I wanted to explore especially Vermeer's this oil painting in terms of Alberti's suggestions. Their periods and races were different but still, there are a lot of similarities between Alberti's rules and Vermeer's painting. I believe The Milkmaid is a proper example according to Alberti's ideas. With this way, I agree with Alberti in terms of his ideas because with using his suggestions, a succesful painting can be arised with those rules, as it is seen in Vermeer's painting. Although it was painted in 17th century, it was influenced by Renaissance aspects of paintings in terms of perceptions that I mentioned.
I have an interest in paintings, so I want to comment your painting ideas. Alberti's book about painting has many influences since it was written. Most of the famous painter even influenced by his book.As you suggested other famous painters, I think yes, they resemble each other in many ways. Even though they have different periods, they sometimes similar ideas. So, it takes us to the importance of art.
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