A deeper analysis into Vermeer’s “The guitar Player”

Vermeer’s “the guitar player” is one of the most symbolic paintings of his entire collection. It is not easy to go beyond the painting and get the ideas hiding behind the textures but we can approach them by the elements and style present in the painting.

During the 17th century the idea of the forbidden love or the hidden love was presented by the symbols of wine and music. We do not find any wine in this scene as the protagonist is a young innocent lady; but we do find music.

The guitar is the main element in the composition of the work. We can clearly see that if we divide the painting in four squared parts. It is known among painters that the human eye is more rapidly attracted by the elements located in the left side of the paintings, specially in the left bottom side. The guitar represents the main motif in the painting, music.

In the upper left side we have  the next most important elements of the work, the young girl’s face and the painting. While the painting represents the sunny summer day outside the room in contrast with the darker room, the girls face shows that she is staring at the door as if she was on alert.

Oppossed to these elements we find the old books located in the lower right corner, which is the place where, unconciously, the human eye puts the less attention. But like in all the paintings of the period the artist has smartly traced the direction of the painting. This means that there are some lines that let us guess the meaning of the work. In this case the guitar as the main and most explicit element o direct our eyes to the old books by the guitar neck which is pointing to this spot .

So now, after this brief stylistic analysis we can understand better the painting.

The guitar and its music represent that hidden love that this girl is probably hidding from her family. The dark room reinforces this idea. The books on the table behind her represent the responsabilities she is not taking at the moment.

Her face staring at the door suggests that she is hidding in that room and that she should not be playing the guitar.

The painting in the back wall represents the sunny day outside the house that in a way, justify the so powerful sunbeams coming in from the outside.

As a curiosity about the symbolism present in this painting, we must point out the fact that for some people the spiral inlays covering the guitar represent Fibonacci’s Golden Ratio.

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