The Battles of Hogen and Heiji

Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, and gold on paper

Hogen to the left and right is Heiji

The  two six-panel screen shows the two civil wars that occurred in the Hogen and Heiji eras that took place in 1156 and 1160. Involving only a handful of politically famous figures of the Heike and Genji clans; the war was only for a few days . The six panel shows how it  signaled the destruction of an old era ruling and the coming of a new era. The city of Kyoto is viewed from above in a wide landscape. The main battle in the war seems to be in the center in the panels and the other minor parts appear in the panel randomly. There appears to be no chronological sequence to the war. The obscure greens, browns, and blues of the landscape with the clouds of gold make colorful and decorative effects. Mountains, rivers, houses, and men and women appear from behind the golden clouds.

Johannes Vermeer The Concert

Johannes Vermeer, The Concert. Oil on canvas

The Concert represented a way of socializing. The people in the room are closely preoccupied with their music. Lying on the table is a lute, while a viola de gamba lies on the floor. Are the instruments soon to be taken up by the musicians, or someone else? I like how Vermeer's reflections of light is used to sparkle of the woman's pearls, the golden threads of the man's stash, the white silk skirt, and the Persian carpet mounded on the table. The theme in "The Concert" seems to be music and three musicians are portrayed in the painting: a female with a harpsichord, a man with a lute and a woman singing.

Dirck van Baburen, The Procuress. Oil on Canvas

 

The left drawing seems to be a rural landscape. The right drawing is by Dirck van Baburen, The Procuress, 1622, oil on canvas. I do not know why Vermeer put the painting of Baburen, The Procuress in his painting. Maybe it is because of Vermeer mother-in-law had owned the painting.

Johannes Vermeer, The Music Lesson. Oil on canvas

 

The Music Lesson seems similar to The Concert. The people belong naturally to he room and participate in the rhythm of the music. The difference between both paintings is the mood of The Concert is more relaxed than The Music Lesson. In The Music Lesson Vermeer attempts to stimulate several specific textures by varying the way he applied paint  like the tassels on the chair to try and enhance their three-dimensional effect. In The Concert the table covering has a relatively abstract character and colors of the dress are painted more sparingly.