Vermeer And Caravaggio Analysis

In the art world, there are lots of artists who stand out. These people usually have had a big impact on art culture through cultivating new techniques or just being extremely good at their craft. Some of these people are recognized during their lives, but a good amount of them are rediscovered only a long time after their death. No matter when or how they are discovered, they still hold an important place in art’s long history. Two of these significant people happen to be Vermeer and Caravaggio, two artists who may seem very different, but with further inspection, have much in common.
Vermeer and Caravaggio both lived complete opposite lifestyles, which influenced their direction and style in their art. Vermeer was a Dutch painter, born …show more content…
Vermeer had taken a liking to drawing inviting indoors types of paintings. He would often draw women going about in their everyday lives. Other than drawing women, he would also pay very close attention to the interior decor of his paintings. Vermeer was a master of manipulating light, using it as a means of bringing life to his paintings. It is believed that he used the camera obscura to draw some of the objects in his paintings. This tool he used would intensify the light and shadows of an object he was paintings. This helped him illustrate the masterful use lighting he is known for. He spent an extreme amount of time deciding the light placement, making sure each inch of the painting was perfect, using realism to bring his painting to life. He also frequently used Sfumato, a fine shading technique which is meant to produce a finer transition between colors and tones to achieve a more realistic image. This technique made Vermeer’s images look more life like because it didn’t include lines or borders. Likewise, he often used the diverging point as a place to put the most attention to. For example, in his painting, The Music Lesson, he used the woman’s left arm as the convergence point for all objects in the paintings. Although subtle, it amplifies the importance and look of the painting, pointing towards the woman as the main attraction of the scene. He used small subtleties like this to make his paintings a cut above the rest. Caravaggio on the other hand had drawings that portrayed deep and symbolic messages. The emotions he felt during his life was plastered onto his canvas, as seen through the painting, Judith Beheading Holofernes, and other paintings. He had a fixation on death and things of that nature. Caravaggio was able to sneak in many symbols of religion that would fly over our heads today.