During the height of the Renaissance creativity flourished. Minds were at work in all fields coming up with new ideas and new artistic expression. Artists captured new feelings and forms never expressed before. Among those artists, was the Dutch genre and portrait painter, Jan Miense Molenaer. Born in Haarlem in 1610, Molenaer was raised within humanist ideals. He learned all about the new wave of thinking and was shown all the art of Amsterdam. By 1629, he himself was at large in the painting world. He actively painted until a few months before his death in 1668, when he became gravely ill. All of his paintings appear to be very different, but upon a closer observation many similarities may be viewed.
All of the paintings use realism to illustrate the daily lifestyle of the artists society and to bring a deeper meaning to the moral imperative. In "The Dentist," Molenaer expresses an average dental visit of a person in the 17th century. The realistic view helps to express the immorality of the dentist and the realization of him as an unscrupulous person. In "The Procuress," Molenaer expresses the reality of woman being sold as prostitutes. This realistic outlook helps to condemn the service being provided without over-animating it. In "Allegory of Vanity," Molenaer shows the reality that even people with money are unhappy. This brings a deep meaning to a moral imperative. It shows that wealth and happiness are separate matters entirely and that not everyone who is wealthy is happy. The moral issues expressed by realistic views better show the seriousness of the ideas, rather than poking fun at something to portray an image, which was commonly done in art at the time.
In all of the paintings, light is used to illuminate the focal point of the painting and to tell the story to artist wants to convey. In "The Dentist," Molenaer illuminates the dentists face to show the greed in his eyes. The dentist, sees the despair of the patient as a gain in his wealth, and cares very little about the actual pain in the patient.
