Another Painting in Lent

 Here's today's painting from the little book

 

This is from week 2 where the subject is Contemplation

Young Woman with a water jug by Jan Vermeer c1662

Sister Wendy says "No painter has ever believed more totally in light than Vermeer - and hence the profoundly contemplative nature of his art".

Wikipedia says " This painting is one of a closely related group painted in the early to mid-1660s as the artist was not using linear perspective and geometric order, and the light was his only source of emphasis. The work suggests that Vermeer was aware that light is composed of colours, and the effect of colours on one another. For instance, the blue drape is reflected as dark blue on the side of the metallic pitcher, and the red fabric modifies the gold hue of the basin's underside.

Young Woman with a Water Pitcher was purchased by Henry Gurdon Marquand in 1887 at a Paris gallery for $800. When Marquand brought it to the United States, it was the first Vermeer in America. Marquand donated the artwork along with other pieces in his collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

The Art of Lent

Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday. Good to know Scouting continues in some areas.

 Plans to post about a painting a day through Lent from a little book I bought went to pot when I ended up writing about the stress of moving!

 

 

The paintings and writings are divided into sections illustrating Silence, Contemplation, Peace, Joy, Confidence and Love

Some of the paintings in this book are famous, some less well know and some  are strange - not things I would choose to put in my house for sure, but then I don't really know much about "proper" art, I just know what I like.

Illustrating 'Silence'.........A painting called Three Greys by Yuko Shiraishi, is just 3 stripes of different greys. Sister Wendy says   "A quick glance at Three Greys and we might walk away thinking it drab and over regulated. A slower glance and the painting reveals an infinitude of subtle hues and shifting verticals"

Just looks like three dull stripes to me!

 I prefer this painting from the book, also depicting 'Silence" . The Magdalen Reading by Roger Van der Weyden. c.1445

"The Magdalen Reading is one of three surviving fragments of a large mid-15th-century by the painter  Roger van der Weyden  It shows a woman with the pale skin, high cheek bones and oval eyelids typical of the idealised portraits of noble women of the period.She is identifiable as the Magdalen from the jar of ointment placed in the foreground, which is her traditional attribute in Christian art. She is presented as completely absorbed in her reading, a model of the contemplative life, repentant and absolved of past sins. Iconography of the Magdalen commonly shows her with a book, in a moment of reflection, in tears, or with eyes averted."

"The background of the painting had been overpainted with a thick layer of brown paint. A cleaning between 1955 and 1956 revealed the figure standing behind the Magdalene and the kneeling figure with its bare foot protruding in front of her, with a landscape visible through a window. The two partially seen figures are both cut off at the edges of the London panel."

 

Since Colin died I've not enjoyed silence in the house but I can easily sit out in the warmth of summer sun in silence in anytime.

I think everyone  is looking forward to the warmth of summer and being outside in 2021.

Back Tomorrow

Sue