Art in decadence?

[Rev. Rye]

It seems to me some of you believe that Realistic Painting evokes no emotion or lacks symbolism.

Vermeer paintings indeed had a tone of realism, but they also portrayed a message of Vermeer's life, and personal life.
The kind of paintings that talk to you, and even by staring at them for hours you feel there is an undescribable message or meaning.

Vermeer objective was not to create "realistic images/pictures" of his era. His paintings also have a "subjective" aspect to them.

It’s a bit more complicated than that: it’s my understanding that, for much of its history, painting had a need to be both subjective and objective (hence the realistic art style that dominated Western art for centuries.) That said, realistic painting is difficult, and I believe that once they realized they had the option to focus more on the subjective and no longer needed to focus on realism, they dropped it.