Baroque Blog

Hudson Parker

Art F200X

June 20, 2021

Baroque Era and The Rise of the Merchant Class

Johannes Vermeer, Girl With a Pearl Earring (1665)


            The visual art that I chose from the Baroque era is the Girl With a Pearl Earring by    What first grabbed my attention about this piece was its backstory. Vermeer first painted this work in 1665 and it was then lost until it was sold to a collector for less than a dollar. I think it is crazy to think that a work of art that is now priceless was at one time sold for a dollar.

            The use of tone in this painting is striking. Everything from the contrast between the blue and yellow of the headscarf, the sheen of the pearl, the way that Vermeer captured light and shade on the girl’s skin and shoulders, the way her eyes draw the viewer in (almost creepily), and the light of her color set against a pitch-black background is all stunning.

            This work connects to the rise of the merchant class due to the Dutch cutting loose from the Spanish Catholic rule around the time that it was painted. The separation of Dutch and catholic rule allowed freedom of artists from religious subjects, and the wealth of merchants that had begun after separation led to merchants hiring artists for personal portraits to show their wealth (Grisham, 2001).

 

 

Citations

Grisham, Kathleen. “Dutch Baroque.” Dutch Baroque. West Valley College, 1 Dec. 2001. Web. 6 Oct. 2014. http://instruct.westvalley.edu/grisham/1b_dutbar.html

"Girl With a Pearl Earring" Google Arts and Culture, https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/girl-with-a-pearl-earring-johannes-vermeer/3QFHLJgXCmQm2Q?hl=en Accessed on Jun 20, 2021


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