Comparison of Style

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	VERMEER	VAN MEEGEREN
Subject Matter	Mostly genre, interiors-two town scapes, one mythological, one religious subject.	Religious, three genre.
Color	Characteristic luminous colors, brick, terra-cotta reds, contrasts of yellow and blue, whites, greens and brown.	Same color range but lacking in luminosity.
Value Contrast	Subtle gradations, sensitively studied, consistent light source. Use of glazing to produce bright, luminous shadows.	Relatively unsubtle gradations- tendency toward stereotyped and repetitive shading(mostly on right side of faces). No glazing.
Texture	Full exploitation of texture, often taking advantage of paired textures, e.g., basketry-polished metal, terra cotta-stream of milk.	Unnaturally smooth, featureless surfaces differentiated only by color.
Composition & Space	Clear cut, easily comprehended space. Compositions are built up of interlocking geometric forms which are interestingly organized in space.	Congested, compressed, and difficult to understand. Compositions are primarily symmetrical. Congested arrangements of figures recurs.
Accuracy	There is a quality of immediacy, accuracy, and palpability which gives the paintings a nearly hallucinatory quality.	The qualities listed for Vermeer are absent in van Meegeren's fakes.
Human Anatomy	Accurate, tendency toward treating hands in a generalized fashion. Increasing simplification and perfection. Downward glance appears early and is said to turn human figures into still life objects.	Little understanding of anatomy, but quite detailed hands. This is a late feature of Vermeer. It is aimed at, but not achieved by van Meegeren. Enlarged heads, giving a falsely dramatic effect.
Still Life Objects	Rich assemblage of seventeenth century furniture, rugs, and decorative objects. All treated with loving detail but in keeping the rest of the setting.	A few genuine seventeenth century objects are used as trappings. They compete with the rest of the image because they are observed from reality while the rest is generalized.
Atmosphere	Much has been said about the unique quality of Vermeer's paintings-their serenity in particular. The things singled out for attention are things which interest the critic for some rather specific reason relating to the critic's view of reality.	There is nothing mysterious or subtle about the forgeries that would evoke the rick interpretive literature available on Vermeer. The Stylistic flaws and superficial treatment of momentous themes prevents further appreciation.