Johannes Vermeer

Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch artist who lived within the seventeenth century. Unfortunately, little is known about this particular artist, as the only form of information left of him can be found through legal documents. He was born in 1632 in Delfth and was most likely an apprentice in Amsterdam or Utrecht for 6 years of his life. In 1653, Vermeer joined the Guild of Saint Luke as a master painter; joining the Guild was an important event in his career as an artist. He was notorious for painting domestic scenes; included were people within interiors. Sadly, Vermeer died at the early age of 43 and left a wife and eight surviving children behind. It was 5 years after his death when his artwork received credit.

The “Girl with the Pearl Earring” was one of Vermeer’s masterpieces which had coined names such as, “the Mona Lisa of the North” and “the Dutch Mona Lisa”. This painting represents an interesting concept called the golden rectangle. This is where the lengths of the painting are in the golden ratio, one-to-phi, that is, approximately 1:1.618. Essentially, this creates a spiral that
can be repeating into infinity! Woah.

Sources:

http://www.gogeometry.com/wonder_world/vermeer_girl_pearl_earring_golden_rectangle.html

http://wwar.com/masters/v/vermeer-johannes.html

http://www.tchevalier.com/gwape/vermeer/index.html

Add a comment October 26, 2009