Painting of the Dutch artist Jan Vermeer “View of the city of Delft”. The size of the landscape is 98.5 x 117.5 cm, canvas, oil. Painter Jan Vermeer achieved in his urban forms an amazing, almost photographic accuracy and objectivity, combining them with the usual for his painting soft poetry.
Urban views during the time of Vermeer in Holland were rarely performed by artists for a wide sale, for the most part such pictures-landscapes or guides were created under a certain order. Vermeer in this picture as a whole remains true to its principles to place the image components parallel to the plane of the picture. The artist’s composition consists of four horizontal layers: the shore, the river, the city and the sky.
On the left, the artist depicted a mother with a child, a lady in the company of two elegantly dressed burghers, and in the center of the picture two more female figures. The river Schi, flowing near the city, branched out in a picture on the Old and New Canal. It is believed that the painter was painting the “View of the City of Delft” with a camera obscura, trying to convey the play of light on water and objects.
This is especially noticeable in the image of the water surface in the fishing boats in the center and on the right side of the picture. Camera obscura, opaque box with a small hole in the center of one of the walls. By placing the box with a hole to an object, you can see its image on the opposite wall. Before the invention of the camera, the obscura camera was often used by artists for accurate natural sketches.
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