Project 2---The Process of Forming Narrative

As the name of the painting is called: The Music Lesson, music is undoubtably the constant element that runs through the whole painting.
The virginal was an instrument greatly admired by the Dutch upper class during the mid-17th century. The lyrics that often accompanied the music extolled love, both human and spiritual, and the solace that could be gained from it. The text on the lid of the virginal in this painting reads: Music: companion of joy, balm for sorrow.
It is worth of appriciating Vermeer's the balance and harmony of its music or the elegance and refinement of the world to which it belonged. In this painting, an attentive gentleman assists a young woman with her sheet music. A painting of Cupid on the rear wall affirms that the contact between the two is amorous, the relationship of this image of Cupid to an emblem , which stresses the importance of taking but one lover, establishes the moral tenor of the scene. Similarly, the man who is so transfixed by the music in the Music Lesson is almost certainly not a music master, and his presence must be otherwise explained. He is an aristocratic gentleman, perhaps a suitor. Music here is used metaphorically to suggest the harmony of two souls in love.

Vermeer virtually eliminated the narrative, the woman is seen derectly from behind. Her hands and music are obscured from the viewer. her face, partially turned toward the gentleman, is only dimly visable in the mirror hanging before her. Thus Vermeer emphasized less the specifics of the woman and her music than the abstract concepts her music embodies: joy, harmony in love, solace.

Initially, the girl's body was sllightly turned away from the man, but her head was twisted back in his direction, the man further forward and leaning more attentively toward the woman. These adjustments were subtle but crucial. In both instances Vermeer transformed the figures form active poses to restrained and statuesque ones, and as a consequence emphasized less their transitory interaction than the permanent character of their relationship. the effect is to draw them more fully into harmony with their carefully ordered environment and to convey the powerful lasting effects of music upon the soul. By retaining the original image of the woman in the reflection in the mirror, Vermeer extended that moment in yet another way. Her reflected image reinforces the sense of the figures' communion with each other and adds a dimension of warmth that infuses that entire painting.

Project 2---Painting Interpretation

Content:

On the far side of a sunlit room with double windows a young woman stands to play on a virginal. A man in elegant dress watches her and listens intently. Both figures are quiet and statuesque.

Composition:

The composition is characterised by the rigorous use of perspective to draw the eye towards the back of the room where the figures are situated- the young woman rather surprisingly seen from the back. The viewer is at first more aware of the jutting corner of the table, the chair and the bass viol than of the gigures themselves, whose privacy is thereby protected.

Light:

Light floods the wall near the windows, but gently looses its force as it falls away from them. Shadows of objects, such as mirror, are modulated because the light comes from different sources. colours are also subtly adjusted according to the nature of the light that falls upon them.

Project 2---The music lesson

A lady at the virginals with a gentleman (‘The Music Lesson’)
c.1662-5
Oil on canvas
73.3 x 64.5 cm
Jacob Dissius, before 1696; acquired by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (d. 1741), probably in the Low Countries, c.1718; bought (from Pellegrini's widow?) by Joseph Smith, 1742; from whom bought by George III, 1762

Project 2---video

Final Model

General view ( house with landscape)

South-West view (entrance)

Section with natural light (Raumplan)

Section with artificial light (Ruamplan)

Detail image showing stairs

Two parts showing interior organizations

Facades (East and West)

Parti and Poche interpretation

This poche drawing shows the quality of the house including interior and exterior. Changing lighting conditions influenced by openings and sun direction has been shown. The lawn and plants and masonry fences can be seen as well. Moreover, textures such as capet, wooden floor, tile show the quality of the house.

Similarly to the above

Grid system has been used. The plan is composed of six squares, which forming a ratio 2:3 in terms of the whole length and width.
The elevation contains several squares as well.

To represent the Raumplan and flowing spaces, a compressed circulation diagram is being used, two levels forming one diagram, moreover, dashed is to symbolize the higher level. All the turning and changing level can be seen.

For vertical circulation, the major path is highlighted, it connects all the major function area such as entry, living room, dinning room, bedroom, top level.

Actually, the circulation and geometry diagram relate to each other, the central pathway for circulation corresponds to the horizontal center line in geometry diagram, in other words, the geometry is also used to form the circulation.

Public and private spaces are distinguished. Through axonometric drawing, the volumes of different function areas can be perceived.

Not only distinguishing the inside and outside of the house, different functions were taken into consideration as well, for example, on raised ground floor, the library and the lady's room are more private use, also, they are lifed up from the other rooms, consequently, their boundrays are thicker, symbolizing these rooms are more enclosed. Due to the library is only one door access, its lines is thicker than lady's room.

Load-bearing walls and colums have been highlighted

Spatial analysis

This spatial design, finished with luxurious and vibrant marbles, woods and silks, combined innovative architectural design with the cultural conception that the upper middle class had of itself

Loos uses the different levels of the Raumplan to create a careful architectural promenade from outside to inside. The first entrance way is low, with strong but dark colors such as deep green/blue tiles. This opens onto a cloakroom area that is generous in plan, brighter with white walls and a big window, but still low. At the far end a short, modest staircase takes the visitor round a right-angle bend, emerging dramatically between marble pillars into the double-height, open-plan sitting room.

The promenade continues past the raised dining room to the upper floors of the house, the Raumplan providing unusual and exciting views into adjacent rooms. On the top level is a roof terrace, with a window in the freestanding end wall to frame the view of Prague cathedral.

Entry way

Dinning room (view connection with living room)

Flowing spaces


Living room



Child room




Master room

Freestanding end wall to frame the view of Prague cathedral

Villa Muller

"My architecture is not conceived in plans, but in spaces (cubes). I do not design floor plans, facades, sections. I design spaces. For me, there is no ground floor, first floor, etc...For me, there are only contiguous, continual spaces, rooms, anterooms, terraces, etc. Storeys merge and spaces relate to each other." Adolf Loos

Known as an innovative landmark of early modernist architecture, the Villa Müller embodies Loos' ideas of economy, and functionality. The spatial design, known as Raumplan, is evident in the multi-level parts of individual rooms, indicating their function and symbolic importance. Raumplan is exhibited in the interior as well as the exterior.

The exterior displayed Loos' theory discussed in his 1908 essay, "Ornament and Crime." In the essay, Loos criticized decorated surfaces. For the exterior of the Villa Müller, Loos designed a white, cubic facade. He also wanted to distinguish between the outside, where the view could be seen by the public eye, and the inside, the private spaces of those who lived there. Consequently, the interior is lavishly decorated with comfortable furniture and marble, wood, and silk surfaces.

POCHE

PARTI