Some facts about “Diana and her Companions”

In this painting, Diana can only be recognised by the crescent moon she is wearing in her hair and by the hunting dog that is sitting next to her. Because of her characteristics as a goddess, she has also   been identified with Artemis   (goddess of the hunt, wild animals, wilderness and virginity; and she brought and relieved disease in women). As it can be seen in the picture below, both of them carry bows and arrows representing their nature as female hunters.

As for the nymphs, two of them are simply resting on the rock and another one is cleaning Diana’s feet using a brass water basin. This water basin has Christian undertones, since it may be suggesting that Diana is cleaning herself both physically and spiritually; even if some critics have also argued that it may be symbolising death. In addition, there is a fourth nymph who keeps herself apart and contemplates the scene from a certain distance, as if she were trying to hide something. She is Callisto, and what she is hiding is her own pregnancy, indeed. The problem is that when Diana chose her nymphs, she made them all take the vow of chastity. Obviously, Callisto broke it when she became pregnant. Diana is not aware of this issue in the scene, but the legend says that when she found out about Callisto’s pregnancy, Diana turned Callisto into a bear and expelled her from the court because she felt betrayed. Therefore, this is the reason why Callisto is dressed in black, and her dressing clearly contrasts the brightness on the foreground – which is emphasised by the women’s bright dresses – with the darkness on the background. As it can be noticed, there is nothing one can see on the background of the painting apart from a tree and absolute darkness.

Apart from that, it can be observed that Diana is placed in the middle of a circle created by the nymphs. The circularity of the painting is then conveying the idea of unity, balance and repose, at the same time that it suggests that the relationship between the goddess and her nymphs is quite close and comfortable. However, Diana has never been described as a relaxed goddess, but as the opposite. She is characterised by her bad temper and this is made evident in the moment when Actaeon breaks in. This is the true Diana, and not the one portrayed in this particular scene. She could have imagined that a masculine figure is about to appear though, since there is a thistle between her and the dog. This plant is the first that blooms in spring, and it also a symbol of masculinity. However, everything points at the fact that the goddess was not aware of this little detail, since her reaction may have been different if she knew that a man was going to interrupt her sacred moment. Unfortunately for him, Diana has also human characteristics, and this put an end to the hunter’s life.

References:

• Diana and her Companions. Essential Vermeer. Retrieved: May 11, 2011 at 15:30 from http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/diana_and_her_companions.html
• Johannes Vermeer. Britannica. Retrieved: May 11, 2011 at 15:36 from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/626156/Johannes-Vermeer
• The Greek Goddess Artemis. Goddessgift. Retrieved: May 11, 2011 at 16:00 from http://www.goddessgift.com/goddess-myths/greek_goddess_artemis.htm
• Actaeon. Encyclopedia Mythica. Retrieved: May 11, 2011 at 16:00 from http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/actaeon.html

Diana and her Companions

‘Diana and her Companions’ (1655-1656) is a painting by Johannes Vermeer that can currently be found in a gallery of The Hague. It is Vermeer’s only surviving mythological scene, inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses (book III, 138-252). Diana, the virgin goddess of hunt and emblem of chastity, has gone hunting early in the morning, and the painting shows the end of her day; the moment in which she is having a rest in her favourite stream with her nymphs. However, this scene reflects an unusual moment before the climax of the story; this is, before Actaeon (young prince and son of the herdsman Aristaeus) breaks in. Both Diana and Actaeon have been hunting separately the whole day, but Diana will punish Actaeon for interrupting her sacred and intimate moment.

It was a bright spring day, and the animals were beginning to emerge from their burrows. Diana decided that it was a perfect day to go out hunting with her nymphs so that they could catch some tasty food for dinner. The woods were full of animals in early spring, therefore, Diana knew she would be successful in her hunting. After being out with her nymphs for the whole day, the nightfall began to appear and Diana stopped at her favourite stream to relax and to have a bath. This is the moment portrayed in the painting. Two of the nymphs are resting on the rock; another one keeps herself apart and contemplates the scene from a distance, and a fourth one is cleaning Diana’s feet using a brass water basin to prepare her for the bath. The brass water basin may have Christian undertones, implying that Diana is cleaning herself both physically and spiritually; however, it could also be related to death. Diana can only be recognised by the crescent moon she is wearing in her hair and by the hunting dog, since there are no other elements related to her hunting ability – such as a bow, arrows or dead animals. She is placed in the middle of a circle created by the nymphs, catching the viewer’s attention and presenting the idea of unity, balance and repose.

Nevertheless, this is not Diana’s most common side. She seems calm and thoughtful in the painting, but in mythology, she is described as cruel and vindictive. She even transformed Callisto, who is present in the scene, into a bear and expelled her from the court because she betrayed Diana by getting pregnant (which is a bit hypocritical if one notices that Diana herself is also pregnant). In the painting, it is the nymph in the black dress that seems to represent Callisto, since she remains on the background attempting to go unnoticed by the viewer; hinting that she is already hiding her pregnancy. This contrasts with the presence of the dog, which is probably representing loyalty and faithfulness; although it could be interpreted as a reminder of Actaeon’s tragic fate as well.

Actaeon appeared when Diana was nude, bathing. This was a sacred moment that no man could interrupt, but the presence of the dog and the thistle are already suggesting that a masculine figure is about to appear. Actaeon did not expect to contemplate that scene, since he went to the stream only to quench his thirst. Diana noticed he was watching, and full of anger – which shows her true personality -, she casted a spell on him. She threw some water drops on him and transformed Actaeon into a deer. Out of fear, he started to run as fast as he could, but fate was against him. His own hunting dogs attacked Actaeon and devoured him, after having mistaken him for a hunting prey. The nymphs knew about Diana’s angry character, so they simply made their own way to the palace and got ready to enjoy the food that they had hunted that same day.

References:

• Diana and her Companions. Essential Vermeer. Retrieved: May 11, 2011 at 15:30 from http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/diana_and_her_companions.html
• Diana and her Companions. Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia. Retrieved: May 11, 2011 at 15:35 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_and_Her_Companions
• Johannes Vermeer. Britannica. Retrieved: May 11, 2011 at 15:36 from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/626156/Johannes-Vermeer

Woman in Blue Reading a Letter

“Woman in Blue Reading a Letter” was painted by Vermeer in the years between 1662 and 1665.  Like the rest of the Vermeers, it is not very big and it is oil on canvas.  Nowadays, it is part of the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.  Actually, it was the first of the Vermeer paintings that the museum acquired back in 1885.

“Woman in Blue Reading a Letter”, besides, is the only one of this artist’s paintings that is framed entirely against the rear wall of the room.  Unlike others that are framed against the left and back walls of the room, this one only presents a single wall highlighting the sensation of a moment suspended in time.  However, it also enhances the capacity of the painting to accomplish itself as a world- establishing depth, gravity and a sense of time and space regardless to the room’s physical coordinates.  In it, we can observe a woman standing next to a table, dressed in a blue garment, and reading something that looks like a letter.

The interior that Vermeer shows us, moreover, is full of very important element.  The following ones would be the most relevant ones:

First of all, we find the woman.  This young lady has been identified to be the artist’s wife Catharina Bolnes, although there is no objective and official support for that.  Nonetheless, at Vermeer’s time it was usual to employ family members to model for artists as a means of saving money.  Besides, they thought that it was easier to work with relatives since it reduced tensions and the artist could exactly tell them which pose to keep for very long hours.

Probably the most important element of this particular painting is the blue garment that the lady is wearing.  According to the clothes expert Marieke Van Winkel, this garment is called a beddejak and it is a garment with straight sleeves, usually blue or white satin, which was closed in the front with a row of bows.  It was used as bed cloth and due to the expensive material that was made of, only rich people could afford it.  It was not usual for Dutch painters to depict this garment is their paintings. 

So, we can conclude that the lady in the painting has just woken up from bed and she’s reading the letter in the morning light.  In addition, the color blue (more exactly ultramarine blue) of the garment that predominates in the painting, has been associated with sadness and melancholy.  So, probably, the woman is reading a sad letter. 

Regarding to the possible pregnancy of the woman, most experts agree that it was probably not the case.  First of all, because it was not common to portray pregnant women in Dutch art and besides, because the fashion of the time led to that kind of error since it encouraged the bulky silhouette. 

Chairs appear in many Vermeers too.  The chairs in this painting are Spanish chairs.  Its basic model developed in Spain by the 15^th century and it soon spread to all over Europe.  They were considered very valuable and not everybody could afford them.  In this case, they only show high social rank. 

Maps are also very recurrent in Vermeer’s work.  The one that we find in this particular one is the map of Holland and Friesland that was designed by Balthasar Florisz van Berkenrode in 1620.  We can find the same exact map in “Officer and Laughing Girl”.  Nowadays, it we want to see the only surviving sample of this map we must go to the Westfries Museum in Hoorn. 

Moreover, there is a piece of dark clothe that we find in the left low side of the painting.  This gives darkness to the whole painting.  It is composed by a blue tablecloth and a scarf like piece.

 

Finally, we have the letter the woman is reading.  In Dutch art, depictions of women reading letters were usually connected to love.  In this case, the artist may wanted to show that the letter has arrived unexpectedly since the woman ahs been interrupted from her morning toilet to stop and read it.  If we take the already mentioned elements we can also think that probably her husband is a man that travels a lot (the map) so she writes to her often to tell her about her life outside home. 

On the table there is also another page that could either be the first part or the second part of the letter.  At that time, letters were usually not put in envelopes but folded in three and sealed with wax. 

Other paintings of Vermeer that include letters are:

-          Girl reading a letter at an open window

-          Lady writing a letter with her maid

-          A lady writing

-          Lady with her maidservant holding a letter

 

• Woman in blue reading a letter.  Essential Vermeer.  Retrieved: April 10,2011 at 17:40 from http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/woman_in_blue_reading_a_letter.html

 

• Woman in blue reading a letter.  Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  Retrieved: April 10 at 18:15 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman_in_Blue_Reading_a_Letter

Maid Asleep

This picture called Girl Asleep, also known as A Woman Asleep, A Woman Asleep at Table, and A Maid Asleep, belongs to the collection of paintings of the Dutch master Johannes Vermeer.

This was one of the paintings of the collection of Vermeer sold on May 16, 1696 from the estate of Jacob Dissius. It is believed that the collection was originally owned by his father-in-law, who lived inDelftas Vermeer’s major patron.  After Dissius, the owner of the painting became John Waterloo Wilson. It was sold the year1881 inParis, when the Sedelmeyer Gallery inParisbought it and sold it the same year to Rodolphe Kann, also ofParis. Kann owned the work until 1907 but sold to Altmanit a year later and was exhibited inNew Yorkin 1909. Altman owned the work until 1913, when it passed into the hands of the Metropolitan Museum of Art where we can find it nowadays.

Before Vermeer started to create his famous interior paintings, he tried with different styles. He painted some Biblical themes, paintings that have to do with Classical mythology and one “bordello” scene which belonged to popular genre in the 1620s and 1630s. After these different styles, he tried painting interiors, which consisted in the modern way of painting of those years and one of his first paintings was The Maid Asleep.

After this brief introduction about the painting, now, I am going to explain some of the main features of Vermeer’s creation:

 

A corner of a wall map

Even if this picture is not one of the best examples that show this corner, we can assume that this area represents a corner of a wall map. The map was a relatively cheap decorative solution for the bare walls of the household. Here, in this picture, the maps hanging rod is more clearly depicted that the map itself.

Here we have some other paintings that show this corner in a more detailed way:

 

The chair

During this period, the chair is not merely a physical support and an aesthetic object; it is also an indicator of a social rank. Vermeer employed two different types of chairs in the painting which he never did again.

The chair in which the lady is, is the typical Spanish chair. The word “Spanish” refers to a type of chair with leather covering made originally inSpainwhile the foreground chair was a later addition to the original concept of the composition. These elegant chairs were painted in most of Dutch interior paintings.

 

The vista opening into another room

The vista opening into another room, called also doorkijkje, appears in a number of Dutch interiors including the Idle Servant by Nicholaes Maes which with no doubt served as Vermeer’s compositional model:

Vermeer employs the doorway inside the same interior to create a sense of spatial depth and emotional depth and as a boundary which divides the viewer of the painting and the figures who are being viewed.

Here we have another example:

 

The painting on the wall

Even if in this Vermeer’s creation we can only see a small part of the painting, here we have a copy of the whole painting:

This figure has been associated with two contemporary images: on the one hand we have Otto van Veen’s popular Amorum Emblemata and n the other hand we have Cupid holding up a card, in the style of Cesar van Everdingen. Vermeer must have been interested in Cupid painting since he employed it as a background element in The Girl Interrupted at Her Music and the Standing Lady at the Virginals:

 

The girl’s face

Here we can ask ourselves two different unsolved questions: is the woman depicted in the picture a maid or a mistress? And is she asleep, drunk or depressed?

According to the Dutch costume expert Marieke de Winkel, who has examined the costumes of Vermeer’s works, in this painting, the maid wears a silk jacket and a pointed black cap called a til together with a pair of pearl earrings, all refined clothe that belongs to the elevated social class. Besides, some art experts believe that the woman is Catharina Bolnes, Vermeer’s wife.

According to the second question, X-radiographs demonstrate that Vermeer had more of a story to tell and the even if now they are eliminated, before, on the table lied two glasses with a wine jug. So even if the real title of the picture says that the woman is asleep, there is no any clear evidence to answer this question.

 

Oriental carpet

The modern painters of the period such as Van Eyck, Lotto and Vermeer, constantly depicted carpets fromTurkeyandIran. These carpets became very popular in the 16th and particular in the 17th century as decorative objects, usually laid over tables or chests to avoid wearing them down. We can find these oriental carpets throughout nine of Vermeer’s painting and even if they look alike between them all of them are created with different patterns.

sources:

Essential Vermeer, Retrieved 10:54, April 25, 2011, from http://www.essentialvermeer.com/

Johannes Vermeer,Retrieved 12:00, April 25, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Vermeer

  Jan Vermeer paintings prints reproduction, Retrieved 09:00 April 27, 2011, from  http://www.artunframed.com/jan_vermeer.htm