Johannes Vermeer’s genius is credited to his artistic abilities, dating far beyond the 17th century. Vermeer is able to create beautiful paintings with extensive detail and simplicity, while breaking the boundaries of the normal 17th century modes. The majority of paintings that originated in the 17th century were historical paintings, based on biblical texts and greek mythology. Vermeer focused on the genre paintings while using women in the paintings to showcase modern housework and housewife responsibilities in a eye opening light to those in the 21st century. Jonathan Jason wrote in Vermeer's subject matter “their costuming- it's colouring, shapes and associations contributes so much to bodily construction and expression that he absence …show more content…
The question that stands is whether or not Johannes Vermeer is in fact a genius. Maybe not in the sense of mathematics or physics, but artistically Vermeer has managed to do something most artists strive for, he has captured his audience for more than 400 years. Is that genius though? Not necessarily, that just makes his works beautiful and timeless, but more importantly the genius of Vermeer is in his boldness and creative audacity. Vermeer's ability to paint two beautiful young woman in such a creative manner that looks as if the light was shining in at the perfect moment showcases his genius. The colors used within his paintings and the mystery that Vermeer leaves the viewers with, shows his genius. Johannes Vermeer's genius is found in his bold genre paintings, the vagueness within the subjects and the ability to add immense amount of detail into such simple paintings. And in creating such timeless paintings, Vermeer is viewed as an artistic genius from the 17th century. Just in creating two simple paintings of everyday youthful women, Vermeer manages to inspire artists to achieve natural beauty and effortlessness within their works as well. Vermeer isn't a genius because of his ability to survive throughout the centuries, he is a genius because his works have lasted this long and are still inspiring others to this day. Johannes Vermeer's works are classic and mesmerizing