| The Art of Painting | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Johannes Vermeer |
| Year | c. 1666–1668 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Movement | Baroque painting, Dutch Golden Age painting |
| Dimensions | 120 cm × 100 cm (47 in × 39 in) |
| Location | Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
The Art of Painting, also known as The Allegory of Painting (Dutch: Allegorie op de schilderkunst), or Painter in his Studio, is a 17th-century oil on canvas painting by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. It is owned by the Austrian Republic and is on display in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.[1]
Many art historians think that it is an allegory of painting,[2] hence the alternative title of the painting. Its composition and iconography make it the most complex Vermeer work of all. After Vermeer's Christ in the House of Martha and Mary and The Procuress it is his largest work.
This illusionistic painting is one of Vermeer's most famous. In 1868 Thoré-Bürger, known today for his rediscovery of the work of painter Johannes Vermeer, regarded this painting as his most interesting. Svetlana Alpers describes it as unique and ambitious;[3]: 119 Walter Liedtke "as a virtuoso display of the artist's power of invention and execution, staged in an imaginary version of his studio ..."[4] According to Albert Blankert "No other painting so flawlessly integrates naturalistic technique, brightly illuminated space, and a complexly integrated composition."[5]
- ^ "Die Malkunst". www.khm.at.
- ^ Wheelock, Arthur K. (1995). Vermeer & the Art of Painting. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 129. ISBN 0-300-06239-7. OCLC 31409512.
- ^ Alpers, Svetlana (1983). The Art of Describing : Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226015125.
- ^ Liedtke, Walter (2007). Dutch paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 893. ISBN 978-0-300-12028-8.
- ^ Blankert, A. (1978). Vermeer of Delft. Oxford: Phaidon. pp. 47–49.