Painter of mystery …

… Vermeer painted the peace he could never have. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Vermeer is the ultimate master of light. He doesn’t use chiaroscuro for dramatic effect like the Dutch Caravaggists; he uses it like a lighting technician to situate the actors within the scene and control the mood. He is, coincidentally, a consummate colorist who grasped the principle of optical mixing two centuries before the pointillistes, applying pure color in tiny dots to strike the eye with a vibrancy not achievable by blending. He painted what the eye sees, not what the brain assumes, but he was not a camera: he chose what to put in and what to leave out. The crusty hunks of bread on the table in “The Milkmaid” (c. 1660) look crisp enough to eat, but he cheated with the milk jug: as she tilts it to pour, the milk should be visible inside but he chose to contrast the white stream with the dark interior