"The music lesson" by Jan Vermeer van Delft, Limit. Giclée reproduction

Jan Vermeer is one of the most important Dutch painters of the Baroque. The life data of the Dutch genres are based on baptism on October 31, 1632 in Delft and his burial there on December 15, 1675. Since there was no painting school in Delft at that time, the son of a silk swarmer, art dealer and innkeeper received a manual training. Admission to the Delft Lukasgilde 1650 testified to his work as a painter. Today only 37 paintings are still known from his hand. Thematically, he focused on genre painting, because there are only a few portraits or religious pictures in his oeuvre. The interior views radiate silence, security and inner calm. The Delft painter was able to achieve these effects with subtle color harmonies and sophisticated shadow areas. He was also a master of shortened perspective. The genre pictures show little figure scenes, which are often attributed to a symbolic content.