| description | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Vrijdagmarkt (Dutch pronunciation: "Friday Market") is a city square in the historic centre of Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium. It is named after the weekly tradition to stage a market every Friday morning. As one of the oldest squares in Ghent, it played an important role in the city's history.
statue of Jacob van Artevelde
14th-century Flemish statesman and leader. He is celebrated for his efforts to revive Ghent's textile industry by securing the import of English wool during the Hundred Years' War, despite the ongoing conflict between England and France. This action earned him the title of "The Wise Man" and made him a hero to the people of Ghent. However, his political maneuvering ultimately led to his assassination in 1345 during a popular revolt.
Sint-Jacobs church, Ghent, Flanders
Graphite pencils and watercolor pencil
Sint-Jacobskerg can be seen in the background.
Large Romanesque & Gothic church
Statue de Jacob van Artevelde in the middle of the square
The View of Delft painting by Johannes Vermeer is
approximately 38 inches by 45.6 inches, oil on canvas
In the view of delft, the strand along the harbor looks amazing. There's so much that is amazing about this painting, but the strand looks so real, so varied in color and texture. I'd be happy to produce a painting featuring just that strand if I could do it justice.
The buildings' details and coloring are interesting. That grey-blue on some rooftops, and sides of buildings, and the trees in shadow. Indigo seems prominent. The paint application of the trees. The trees have three or four shades of grey and spots of daylight peeking through, from the bright, sunlit background. Looking at the trees leads the eye to the brilliant red terracotta roof buildings and their distinctive stairstep gables. Contrast those with the terracotta buildings to the left, in shadow.
I like the dark reflections of the buildings in the harbor giving it a menacing quality. Be interesting to see this view of the harbor in daylight. The shadow of the building directly across from the two women on the strand, with the clock, has a shadow that is just a murky mess, no building details whatsoever. The reflections of the boats in front dissolve into greyish glitter on the water.
There is so much suggested detail in this painting, like the roofs to the left, the pattern of the tiles is suggested in the horizontal (?) pattern of successive light and dark variants of the orange in shadow. The buildings in shadow shadowy reflections.
I think there was a missed opportunity, though if perhaps was not physically, factually supported. The canal bridge in the middle has just a hint of the bright daylight, as if an afterthought. I would have been tempted to light the background up as in "The Stone Bridge" by Rembrandt, where the boat passing under the bridge is in shadow but the river and riverbank behind are in full daylight. The effect is such that your immediate focus is the tree ablaze in sunlight in the middle, then you follow the arch of the bridge to the river, and finally the boat with the two men in the foreground. Yes that could have liked nice in Delft, too. As AI would say, it relies on a very specific and transient moment in nature.
Lots of black outlining on the buildings, but not with lines of one width, with different width lines, like the two towers, one above the clock and the other to the right, bright in the background. Shadows on objects in the distance are reduced to simple black marks of varying widths.
I realize now I completely misinterpreted the lighting in the foreground of the view of delft. The sun is not shining on the strand. The people have no shadows, the posts have no shadows. The strand is just so bright, it suggests sunlight not shadow. But it is in shadow. The entire phenomenon is not sunlit foreground, in cloud shadow middle distance and sunlit background. Instead it's just foreground shadow and background light. Much simpler. I think I've seen this aspect from my first impression of the painting, but it remained unreconciled in my mind.
Does that mean my view of ghent changes similarly, cloud shadowed foreground?
Why is the cloud so yellow? Is this in the original painting, lacquer aging, but surely it's been cleaned. The yellow is intended. Trying to think back, to a partly-cloudy day when the clouds were heavy with moisture, very dark, but never yellow, always grays. Perhaps reflected light, fields surrounding delft. There would be no such reflected light in the middle of ghent. I believe the yellow color is actually raw umber, it has a yellowish cast. The darker areas have grays mixed in, some red and blue. This creates a nice transition from the raw umber areas.
A big gray cloud, gray buildings, lit in the background, some other colors, muted in the foreground, people and buildings. Multiple clouds, fluffy white progressing to gray?
Maybe skip the lighting phenomenon altogether and just do the scene as drawn. |
