The Milkmaid And Girl Analysis

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without. –Buddha While studying the three legs of the western philosophical stool- truth/wisdom, justice, and art/beauty- it became clear one must develop their own perspectives, beliefs, truths, and meanings regarding each leg. The interpretations of truth and meaning come individually based on experiences and different backgrounds. Each piece of artwork described represents a form of peace, coming from within, and a price paid to achieve it. Johannes Vermeer’s The Milkmaid and Girl with a Pearl Earring depict beautiful women intent, almost mesmerized, on their goal, against a dull background. Similarly, Claude Monet’s obsession with his garden at Giverny can be seen in works such as Waterlilies, Water Landscape, Clouds, 1903 and Waterliles, 1897/98. Like Vermeer, Monet’s focus on the simplicity of a scene is not only breathtaking but paints a story of peacefulness. But just like the shadows in each of the four works, peace casts its own

Much of Dutch artwork was created to “educate people to behave ‘virtuously’” and in most cases “by depicting, in a comic manner, characters behaving wrongly” (Schneider, 2004, p. 61). Therefore, servants were often painted as being lazy, uncaring, or untrustworthy (Schneider, 2004). However, Vermeer chose to display the opposite in some of his works, such as in The Milkmaid, and present servants as the “exemplum virtutis (model of virtue)” (Schneider, 2004, p. 61). This not only made him stand out among the rest of Dutch painters but made The Milkmaid highly famous and unique. On the other hand, Vermeer did take use of a Dutch tradition of an illusionist approach in his work Girl with a Pearl Earring (Schneider, 2004). The girls lips, parted slightly, give the illusion she is about to speak to her audience (Schneider,