There were few good reasons to blur what should be sharp edges in paintings. Aerial perspective and Vermeer’s unusual optical effects explored in paintings.
Vermeer
An offshoot of still life paintings of food, it was never very popular, and most of these are decidedly odd. From Jan Brueghel the elder to
Did Vermeer use a camera obscura? What went wrong with Impressionist oil sketches? When did Klimt paint from photographs? Does any of this really detract from the art in a painting?
Paintings by Botticelli, Raphael, Velázquez, Gerard ter Borch, and Vermeer, including an unusual Madonna in which the Virgin Mary is writing the Magnificat.
Ever noticed how stern everyone looks in paintings? Here are some exceptions from Frans Hals, Murillo, Vermeer and others.
Primary task to milk cows by hand, also make possible the eradication of smallpox. Paintings by Rubens, Potter, Vermeer, Gainsborough and others.
If composers and performers can evoke visual images in music, why can’t painters return the complement? Lavinia Fontana, Vermeer, Menzel, Corot and others try.
Paintings by Vermeer, Delaroche, Whistler, Gérôme, Waterhouse and others showing wonderful carpets and floors.
Raphael’s legacy, including assimilation of styles, figures so lifelike they’re ‘almost breathing’, and a large workshop.
From Botticelli’s map of Dante’s ‘Inferno’ to Vermeer’s fine-detailed depictions of decorative wall hangings.
The Eclectic Light Company 