"Ever since I saw the View of Delft in the museum in The Hague, I have known that I had seen the most beautiful painting in the world" - Marcel Proust.
View of Delft (Dutch: Zicht op Delft) is an oil painting by Johannes Vermeer (Dutch painter, 1632-1675), painted c. 1659-1661.
The painting of the Dutch artist's hometown is among his best known.
It is one of three known paintings of Delft by Vermeer, along with The Little Street and the lost painting House Standing in Delft, and his only cityscape.
According to art historian Emma Barker, cityscapes across water, which were popular in the Netherlands at the time, celebrated the city and its trade.
Vermeer's View of Delft has been held in the Dutch Royal Cabinet of Paintings at the Mauritshuis in The Hague since its establishment in 1822.
Description
A technical analysis shows that Vermeer used calcite, lead white, yellow ochre, natural ultramarine, and madder lake pigments.
The landscape was painted from an elevated position to the southeast of Delft, possibly the upper floor of the Mechelen tavern where the artist's studio was located.
To the very right of the painting is a medieval brick building called the Rotterdam Gate, in front of which are two herring busses.
It is one of two gates on Delft's south side, the other being the Schiedam Gate, shown in the middle of the composition.
There is a bridge between the Rotterdam Gate and the Schiedam Gate, which has a clock on its roof.
Behind the Schiedam Gate is a long red-roofed arsenal now known as the Legermuseum.
Johann Sebastian Bach | The Prelude and Fugue in C major, BWV 846
The buildings are reflected in the calm harbour of the river Schie, which was colloquially known as the Kolk (pond).
On the lower left side of the painting, five people are waiting to board a passenger barge to take them to Rotterdam, Schiedam, or Delfshaven.
The passenger barge was pulled by a horse and could hold up to thirty people.
Vermeer painted his initials, VM, on the red interior of the barge.
To the barge's right are two women talking to each other.
Vermeer originally painted a third person next to them, but later changed his mind and painted him out.
Behind the Rotterdam Gate is the illuminated spire of the Nieuwe Kerk.
In reality, the Nieuwe Kerk would be positioned more toward the right, but Vermeer depicted it closer to the center to make it more prominent.
There are no bells in the tower in this painting as those would not be added to the church until after the painting was completed in 1661.
The Nieuwe Kerk was where Vermeer was baptized at one to two weeks old, and where his mother and elder sister were buried.
In the background is the top of the tower of the Oude Kerk ("Old Church") which was built around 1246, making it Delft's oldest parish church.
Vermeer is buried there.
View of Delft, 2019-01
La Veduta di Delft è un dipinto ad olio su tela (96,5x115,7 cm) di Johannes Vermeer, databile al 1660-1661 circa e conservato nella Mauritshuis dell'Aia.
Fu una delle opere con cui prese inizio la riscoperta del pittore, anche da parte del pubblico non specialistico.
Unico paesaggio noto di Vermeer, assieme alla Stradina di Delft, è considerato un capolavoro assoluto, amatissimo, tra gli altri, da Marcel Proust che, in una lettera all'amico Jean-Louis Vaudoyer, definì "il più bel quadro del mondo" ("le plus beau tableau du monde"), e che citò in un passaggio della Recherche (ne La prigioniera): lo scrittore Bergotte, già molto malato, vi muore davanti pur di poter vedere un "piccolo pezzo di muro giallo" ("un petit pan de mur jaune"), non notato in precedenza, che diventa metafora di una scrittura diversa, più preziosa e "colorata".
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