Especially to that morning, when I, on the threshold of life, visited the Rijksmuseum at Amsterdam and there “discovered” Johannes Vermeer. The image of the Master which rose up before me then excelling everything and everyone, still stands clearly before me. It has not changed in spite of many different trends which since then have stirred the world of Art and myself too, in spite of the changes of opinions and feelings in so many things and ways which everybody is subject to, and therefore I also. The only thing which has changed is our knowledge of his works, his methods, and his life. The desire for this knowledge is rooted in admiration. It is grounded in the indescribable aesthetic values which were revealed to me in Vermeer’s creations.
These are themes, which, with variations and in other keys, are played in all men’s lives. As I write I hear the melodies echoing in myself as if coming from a distance. How could it be otherwise? Would not a spiritual and artistic view be more suitable and more fruitful? In my writing have the heart and soul which so often–and certainly with an artist–speak much more loudly and clearly than a cool reasoning intelligence, been too much pushed aside?
These and similar questions in other forms too will keep looming up again and again if we go into the dark labyrinth of man’s soul. But perhaps they can be quenched or nullified if we consider the universal human lover’s desire to know the object of his love as thoroughly as possible. But there is yet more. The richest language has not enough words when we try to reproduce our completely innermost and deepest feelings in their thousand shades and aspects.
Every attempt to do this ends in similitudes and there is no similitude so perfect but that there is something dissimilar. We never get a really exact picture. It is an attempt doomed to failure at the start. But these, and other considerations were accompanied by equally important questions, although of another kind. Is it necessary, is it desirable, is it justifiable to sketch the reconstruction of the picture of such a great, unusual personality as Johannes Vermeer has been, with our “subjective” feelings? Should not the writer beware of adorning him with the lovely garment that the romantic mind of man has created so gladly–sometimes all too gladly?
It may seem hard to many people if we take that robe away from him which the last generation was accustomed to meet him in, but it is necessary if we want to learn to know him in reality and exactly. Moreover, the figure of Johannes Vermeer is too dignified–and above all, too simple–to bedizen him with the tawdry trifles from our twentieth century bazaar. But the deciding factor which made me resolve to give as objective a portrait as possible of the artist was the trust I might put in my readers that they would know how to read with heart and soul and complete the lightly traced portrait in their own spirit to the highest possible perfection and make it grow to a living figure.
The available material is not sufficient to complete the reconstruction in every aspect. I have used it to the best of my ability, and refrained from felling in the gaps which nevertheless remain in the picture. The art-expert has not ventured on territories which do not belong to him and which-as he thinks–are full of gins and traps rendering the treading there-for think–not without danger. In those cases where I have touched on the borders of these territories, I have stopped my review and left it to the psychologist to work it out further if he wishes to.
Having once come to the decision of limitation, partly from outside compulsion, and having made it a condition for myself to sketch as objective a picture as possible, then it seemed to me that nothing, not even the smallest fraction which belongs to Vermeer’s life and work and which could enlarge or clarify our insight into the being of his personality and artistry, ought to be suppressed or neglected. The sources from which the details have been obtained are not always pure and limpid, not always equally flowery, all details are not always equally important, but these less pleasant qualities should not prevent them from being mentioned. That is one of the disadvantages of a logical and consistent adhesion to principles.
During the years 1914-1918 the projection drawings of Vermeer’s inteteriors were completed. This solved only one of the problems which had heaped themselves up in my mind around the figure of Vermeer and in the course of many years had ripened to fruit, which I now and then ventured to present to a small circle of artistic, learned, and interested friends where I spent many and unforgettable hours.
There I had ample opportunity to test my ideas and opinions, to check and to correct them; and there too I have yielded to pressure to set down my research and conclusions in writing. With heart-felt thankfulness and deep gratitude my thoughts go back to those friends, who gave me so much sympathy and support. Some of them have already passed away. They were so often the driving force of that enthusiasm which increases the joy of life and deepens life’s meaning. Time may heal all wounds, but cannot drive away the nostalgia which is bound up with their memories.
In 1940 when Right was once more trampled on by foreign invaders and all spiritual values were crushed, my manuscript was almost finished. The pictures of Johannes Vermeer and of so many other old masters had already been taken to shelter some months before. On May 10th my manuscripts, drawings, reproductions, etc., had to disappear to a safe place. just like the poet Perk saw “the ghost of Hooft” the wraith of Vermeer stayed with me, his happy wisdom reached me amongst the orgies of idiocy and barbarism, and I enjoyed the purity of his character when lies and deception held high revel. I was better than ever able to understand the master, who, like so many of my contemporaries, became the victim of the madness of despots.
It cannot be denied, that notwithstanding the many currents and trends of thought which ruled the art of painting in the twentieth century, the interest in the art of Johannes Vermeer has steadily increased. It is a remarkable but not inexplicable phenomenon. Modern art since the rise of expressionism has continually segregated and abstracted itself more and more, the spiritual and pictorial foundations have become narrower and more insecure, it withdrew itself more and more from reason and nature. It is-and often intended to be–the expression of its own time. For many serious beholders it contains every symptom of a process of degeneration, of a cultural crisis.
Presently when this period has receded further into the past and it will be more possible than it is for the present generation-which has bodily, as it were, experienced all the shocks and disturbances caused by expressionism–to obtain a complete survey of its gradual development and its relation to other events, the value of these opinions will be assessed more accurately.
It is not to be expected that it will be viewed otherwise than as a revelation in which the forms and directions of thought of its own times have been reflected. One thing, however, is quite certain, that exactly the fact that Vermeer’s art is independent of time, its transcendence of time, so to say, and its all-embracing quality was more observed than ever before. Perhaps this observation has been unconsciously made by many and has occurred to them only because in the depths of their hearts the longing for the timeless by those tied down to their own time grew stronger and stronger.
People’s thoughts, conscious or unconscious, have always been aimed at the eternal laws and the true being of the art of painting and appreciation of art. And this interest became more intense as one knew oneself to be farther removed from Vermeer’s art. Groping and searching one has, led by these unconscious feelings, followed paths which one believed would lead to where the solution of the problem was to be found. A deliberate analysis, however, has never been attempted. And this is in my opinion the only way which, if it does not produce “the” solution, can at least bring us nearer to it.
It will hardly be necessary to state, that during my studies and my research, I had often to step out of Johannes Vermeer’s immediate circle and consider him in the midst of many other great masters on whose shoulders the fame of West European painting once rested. Their different worlds of thought and feeling have naturally also given their masterpieces a different character and content. A comparison of their creations with those of Verer makes apparent his extreme independence as an artist.
The way in which Vermeer observed things and appearances, the way he has painted them, the way he has watched the effects of light and analysed the colours of things, the purity with which he has cared for the drawing, and the way he shaped all this to an indestructible whole, has never yet been equalled. Vermeer’s great and special importance lay in his purely pictorial vision. Others may please by their imposing subjects, by their vast compositions, by their grandiose artistic manner, by their depth of thought and richness of ideas, by their abundant colouring, but there is not one, who, like Vermeer, has discovered and realised the great simplicity of absolute beauty in the humblest subject.
Finally I must beg my readers once again–I have done so once already elsewhere–not to confine their interest in Vermeer solely to reading about him. By that alone no one could learn to know Vermeer and to understand him. If one wants to enjoy his creations fully in both their artistic and spiritual values, it is highly necessary completely to submit to and enter into his art. These riches are not to be captured in one attempt, but repeated thoughtful and intense “beholding”, absorbing as deeply as possible and penetrating into his spirit will make the great Delft Master accessible and reveal his undying values. May it be given to our times to rediscover these riches and to value them, as they wish to be valued: as the best and most beautiful which mankind has produced.
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