Credit, Mauritshuis, The Hague. Donated by Arnoldus Andries des Tombe, The Hague
caption,
“Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer
8 hours ago
In February, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, opened its doors to the largestever retrospective of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer (16321675), bringing together 28 of the artist’s 37 existing paintings.
The display is smart, elegant and carefully curated. Certainly a unique event.
But what first catches the eye about the show is Vermeer’s incredibly realistic painting technique, particularly his depiction of light how it gives shape and volume to objects and how different shades of sunlight change as they filter through the window panes and are tinted by the cloud cover Colors of objects and make fabrics shine.
Credit, Old Masters Picture Gallery, Dresden
caption,
“Girl Reading a Letter at the Window” (165758) by Johannes Vermeer
1. The curtain in Girl at the Window Reading a Letter (165758)
Vermeer was 25 years old when he painted Girl at the Window Reading a Letter. The painting marks a new phase in the artist’s career as he left religious scenes and began to focus on intimate, sometimes introverted, episodes of domestic life.
The focus of the work is the stillness of the woman who is absorbed in reading.
Generations of art lovers have admired the beautiful arrangement of the artifacts and the human character in the painting. But one detail deliberately breaks this perfect illusion.
Covering one fifth of the composition, the green curtain is hung on a rail and brass rings. In the 17thcentury Dutch Republic, pictures were often covered with curtains to protect them. Vermeer seems to have inserted this curtain as an optical illusion to convince us to grab the curtain and pull it back.
The work also evokes a famous story in art history described in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History published in AD 77
Two artists, Zeuxis and Parrhasio, competed against each other in a competition to see who was the best painter. Zeuxis created a still life of grapes that was so realistic that when the painting’s cover was removed, birds came flying to eat them. And when Zeuxis tried to discover the painting of Parrhasius, he was surprised to find that the cover was actually painted.
Vermeer’s curtain is an allusion to this wellknown story. It symbolizes his technique and forces us to question art’s exploration of illusion and reality.
Credit, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Acquired with the help of the Rembrandt Association
caption,
‘The Milkmaid’ (165859) by Johannes Vermeer
2. The foot warmer in A Leiteira (165859)
The room is cold and dreary, with damp stains on the wall and a broken window pane. The maid is engaged in one of the humblest jobs imaginable: making bread pudding, with milk and stale bread.
But the foot warmer in the lower right corner cleverly transfigures the image’s meaning, making it far more than a representation of everyday life.
Foot warmers were designed to hold chunks of hot charcoal and were placed under women’s clothing while working from home during the winter months. But in Vermeer’s painting, the foot warmer is opposite a bluepainted tile depicting the god of love, Cupid, and his arrow of desire.
This combination of symbols had a special meaning for the Dutch audience of the 17th century: in the style of the time (genre painting), foot warmers symbolized lust as they warmed the lower parts of the body. They were often displayed in combination with other euphemistic objects, such as empty jugs, to represent the maids’ availability for sex.
In Vermeer’s painting, the symbols of passion are present, but everything else points to the woman’s respectability. She looks away from us, her body is wrapped in heavy clothing and her back is turned to the lustful symbols while she goes about her chores.
Credit, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Widener Collection
caption,
Woman with Scales (166264) by Johannes Vermeer
3. The Scales in Woman Holding a Scale (166264)
In a quiet room behind a curtain, a young woman watches as a pair of scales gradually balances itself. Items on the table indicate that she will begin evaluating various coins and beads, but the presence of a picture on the wall directly behind her indicates a deeper development.
His head obscures most of the painting, but the upper portion that is uncovered shows Christ at the Last Judgment. In this picture within a picture, Jesus is doing the same thing as the woman—he is weighing something, except his job is to judge souls on Judgment Day.
Vermeer was very religious and encoded many of his works with symbols of spirituality. The Dutch Republic in which he lived was strictly Protestant, but he was a Catholic convert. Libra could be a reference to your faith, which a minority in your country profess.
The founder of the Society of Jesus, Saint Ignatius of Loyola (14911556), had advised good Catholics to weigh their sins and their good deeds in prayer: more fitting for the honor and praise of God our Lord and for the salvation of my soul .”
Vermeer maintained his association with the Jesuits in various ways throughout his life. He is believed to have married in a Jesuit church near his hometown of Delft in the Netherlands and even named one of his sons Ignatius, in honor of the founder of the Society of Jesus.
“Vermeer was fascinated by Catholicism,” says Pieter Roelofs. “He had at least seven daughters, and the paintings he created might have been a model of sorts for his own daughters back home.”
Credit, Mauritshuis, The Hague. Donated by Arnoldus Andries des Tombe, The Hague
caption,
“Girl with a Pearl Earring” (166467) by Johannes Vermeer
The painting Girl with a Pearl Earring seems like another image of a natural and fleeting moment. The work is an example of tronie a Dutch genre of art depicting an unnamed character in an interesting outfit.
The headscarf tries to show the girl as an ancient or exotic figure, and her pearl is meant to convey spiritual purity or earthly beauty. Its coat is made of a multicolored fabric that appears gray or blue in shadowed areas and gold in direct lighting.
In Vermeer’s day, the depiction of fine material was of particular interest to collectors, who judged painters on their ability to evoke it in art. Vermeer’s father worked in the cloth trade, which gave the artist an early knowledge of the beauty and importance of precious fabrics.
Vermeer is known for using the symbolic language of art defined in Italian writer Cesare Ripa’s book of allegories Iconologia, translated into Dutch in 1644. Silk with colors that change depending on the light.
Vermeer’s model is also adorned with the three primary colors that form the basis of the painting material red lips and yellow and blue clothing.
In Vermeer’s painting, the young woman—painted with her mouth open and looking directly at us to increase our desire—lies on her side as if about to disappear into the darkness.
Is it a representation of art itself, with its tantalizing ideals of perfection that are always beyond our reach?
Credit, Friedsam Collection, Gift of Michael Friedsam, 1931; Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
caption,
‘The Allegory of Faith’ (167074) by Johannes Vermeer
5. The Glass Ball in the Allegory of Faith (167074)
Vermeer’s religious belief is most strongly expressed in his last allegorical painting, The Allegory of Faith.
The main character is an embodiment of Catholicism. His appearance and gestures are again taken from Iconologia by Cesare Ripa, this time of a character indicating “faith”.
But the crystal ball above your head isn’t in Ripa’s book. It has taken scholars decades to discover its meaning.
In 1975 the art historian Eddy de Jongh discovered the symbol, represented exactly as in the Allegory of Faith (hung by a ribbon), in a book entitled Sacred Emblems of Faith, Hope and Charity by the Flemish Jesuit Father Willem Hesius (1601 1690). The symbol was accompanied by a phrase: “She captures what she cannot keep.”
A verse in the book explains that the sphere is like the human mind. In his panoramic reflections, “the vast universe can be represented in something small”.
And also: “If you believe in God, nothing can be greater than this spirit.” The sphere symbolizes the interaction of the spirit with God.
It can be added that all of Vermeer’s paintings are like the sphere. They capture fleeting ideas and events on their flat surfaces, capturing them for posterity.
Despite his exceptional technique of capturing reality in all of his paintings, Vermeer had very little success throughout his life. He created about two paintings a year and the little money he earned was not enough to live from painting alone.
Perhaps his art appeals to us all the more in the hectic 21st century because it radiates a unique calm. In Vermeer’s scenes, time seems to freeze in the crystal clear sunlight and the stillness falls like a heavy curtain.
But beneath the surface pulsates an exuberant world of symbols: relevant and enduring ideas about art, desire, materialism and spirituality, captured by Vermeer and patiently awaiting discovery.