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I remember how the last time you posted "The Milkmaid," I'd been surprised by how rich (and aesthetically-synched-up) the palette of colors in her clothing were. So the picture Vermeer would seem to paint is of a world where even the servants are thriving.

Seeing "greatest artist who ever lived (at least by market share)" and then scrolling down and seeing a Kinkade cracked me up. I liked how you compare these across centuries!

Also... the realism of the imperfections of the walls in "The Milkmaid" reminds me of something I once read as a teenager browsing through a 3D-rendering-software trade magazine... an article on "dirtying up" an image or object to make it look more real... chips or cracks in dishes, "broken-in" boots... a little dust or a spiderweb in the corner instead of ultra-smooth walls. I feel like that method, too, would (slightly) hold with some of the "cozy culture" pictures; you have to toss the afghan down so it appears to be just careless enough. ("These pictures can take hours to stage" made me feel physically ill; I've done a small amount of experimenting with similar staging, and I have memories of its unpleasantness--the spiraling of my anxiety as my project idea repeatedly exceeded the boundaries I'd imagined for "how long this should take.")

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Thanks for reading! I'm fascinated with how the concerns of artists overlap throughout time. The basic facts of the human condition remain more-or-less stable, even as artistic styles come and go.

I'm certainly not opposed to the Dutch Masters per se; their command of light, composition, and (as you mentioned) color are superb. But I do feel suspicious that while the rest of Europe was painting mythological themes, The Dutch were painting themselves. It reminds me of the scene in Milos Forman's "Amadeus" when Mozart says, "why do I have to write operas based on these dry, lofty stories of gods and goddesses?" and the emperor's advisors say "because they transcend our humanity". Many aspirational images - an allegory of love or virtue, for example - try to get us to aspire to something greater than ourselves. But these Dutch paintings seem to be holding up the Dutch society as its own ideal of perfection.

But you're right, that a slight amount of imperfection can add realism to a scene. I do wonder what that is on the floor of "The Milkmaid" . . . a mousetrap of some sort? Also notice how the pavement in de Hooch's courtyard is ever-so-slightly warped and buckled, as if it has settled over time.

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This was a great read. Loved how you drew the parallel between aspirational imagery from the past and the present, and how they’re still deceiving and don’t accurately represent reality. I never thought about it from your perspective until now. I tended to quickly cast blame on new technology for the modern Instagram craze of creating deceivingly perfect pictures. It goes to show that our tools are just tools, whether it’s just a brush or a phone. It’s our flawed perceptions/standards that are the problem.

Thank you for expanding my thinking! 🙌

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Thank you! Our tools are indeed just tools -- what we do with them makes all the difference.

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Reading art is often 'harder' than reading a book.

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I agree; pictures are inherently non-propositional and so are often difficult to understand. Get ready for something coming out, hopefully next week, on an author who has done a great job of showing how difficult and unreliable our interpretations can sometimes be.

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