Las Meninas and The Art of Painting, the Portraits of Two Painters

On February, 16 2003, Vermeer visited the Prado Museum, in other words, the house of his contemporary Velázquez for the first time. In fact, on May, 19 2003, Vermeer’s The Art of Painting hanged near Velázquez’s Las Meninas in the Prado Museum. In addition, they are surprisingly two similar paintings which were created very close in time.

Las Meninas (1656)

The scene takes place in the studio of Velázquez, in one of the rooms of Madrid’s Alcázar Palace. Velázquez appears in front of a big canvas portraying the King Philip IV of Spain and the Queen Mariana of Austria that are reflected on the mirror at the back. The five-year old infant Maria Margaret has entered the room to take a peep with her two ladies-in-waiting, María Agustina Sarmiento and Isabel de Velasco, and two court buffoons, María Bárbola and Nicolasito Pertusato, who is kicking a mastiff.   Behind them, the duenna de Ulloa is talking with a guardadamas and in the doorway the quartermaster Jose Nieto appears in the stairs. Velázquez is wearing court clothes and confidently holds a brush and a palette.

 The Art of Painting (1666)

The Art of Painting was preserved in Vermeer’s possession until his death. Therefore, it can be concluded that was a special painting for him. A curtain drawn to the left shows the intimate studio of the painter who concentrated is portraying a girl with a crown of laurel on her head holding a book and a trumpet. These elements were identified as symbols of fame by the seventeenth century society, and therefore the woman who is posing for Vermeer, seems to be Clio, the muse of history. The white mask that lies on the table is thought to symbolize imitation and therefore painting. The map hanging at the back of the painting and the lamp, appear to emphasize the theme of history embodied by Clio. (For further information of this painting visit Sheila Juaristi’s posts).

 The painter inside the painting

It was not until the Renaissance when important authors began to affirm their individuality and provide the works with titles. Therefore, it was quite innovative for the seventeenth century painters to include their self-portraits in their works. Nevertheless, Vermeer and Velázquez almost at the same time depicted themselves in the act of painting (painting inside the painting).

In front of a big canvas, Velázquez is looking at the visitor attentively. However, who is Velázquez looking at? At first, the visitor feels observed by the painter as he was inviting him/her to the inside of the painting. Nevertheless, the visitor soon realizes that Velázquez does not seem to have his eyes fixed on him/her, but on the subjects he is painting. Therefore,  as Manuel Durán notices the visitor appears to feel ill at ease when he/she realizes that the King and the Queen may be standing by his/her side.

 

 On the other hand, Vermeer perhaps more timid is sitting with his back to the visitor. He appears to be fully concentrated on his oeuvre and the solely attentive gaze of the visitor seems to interrupt the silence that fills the studio. Vermeer is wearing dark simple and easy to wash garments to protect the clothes from the paint.

 The Fame of the Artist

In the dark and elegant clothes of Velázquez, the characteristic red cross of Santiago remarkably catches the eye of the visitor. It has been claimed that it was painted by Philip IV himself when Velázquez was awarded the Order in 1659, three years after finishing the painting. In fact, as Jonathan Brown states the central theme of the painting appears to be “[. . .] not only an abstract claim for the nobility of painting, but also a personal claim for the nobility of Velázquez himself”.

Moreover, Vermeer’s The Art of Painting seems to raise similar themes. Vermeer alludes to the connection between history and painting. Alejandro Vergara suggests that “history inspires the artist and, furthermore, according to the prejudice prevailing in artistic circles since Antiquity, is its most important subject-matter, entitling artists to a position of prestige within society”.

 

 Thus, both Velázquez and Vermeer with two of their most appreciated and last works of Las Meninas and The Art of Painting are declaring the will of the artist to gain social recognition. Velázquez appears to be admitted in the bosom of the royal family and therefore, he is awarded nobility titles. In addition, by establishing a connection between history, fame and painting, Vermeer seems to be also praising the social recognition of painting.

References:

Durán, Manuel (Yale University) Velázquez frente a Vermmer [online]. [Accessed 31st May 2009] Available from World Wide Web: http://www.lehman.edu/ciberletras/v08/duran.html. An interesting essay which compares Velázquez’s Las Meninas with Vermeer’s The Art of Painting.  I highly recommend having a look at it.

Essential Vermeer. The Art of Painting [online]. [Accesed 31st May 2009]. Available from World Wide Web:http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/art_of_painting.html and http://www.essentialvermeer.com/cat_about/art.html

Lucas, Antonio (2003) El Prado ‘recoge’ la luz prodigiosa de Johannes Vermeer. El Mundo, 18 May 2003. [online] [Accessed 31st May 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.elmundo.es/papel/2003/02/18/cultura/1338842.html

Museo Nacional del Prado (Madrid) Las Meninas. [online] [Accessed 31st May 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.museodelprado.es/index.php?id=995&no_cache=1&L=0&tx_obras[adv]=

Samaniego, F. (2003) El mito de Vermeer conmociona el Prado. El País.com.cultura, 18 February  2003. [online] [Accessed 31st May 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/mito/Vermeer/conmociona/Prado/elpepucul/20030218elpepicul_1/Tes

Vermeer and his contemporaries

I have recently found two videos which are well worth having a look at to have a general overview of Vermeer and his contemporaries:

• In Spanish: ArteHistoria, Vermeer el ciudadano de Delft: http://www.artehistoria.jcyl.es/genios/videos/184.htm

This video contains a brief general overview of the context, biography and art of Vermeer and his contemporaries. In addition, this webpage also includes other videos of different paintings of Vermeer as well as other artists.

• In English: Norton Simon Museum, Multimedia The Intimate Interior: Vermeer and His Contemporaries by Anne Woollett: http://www.nortonsimon.org/multimedia/videos/annewoollett.php?video=medium

This video shows a presentation given by Anne Woollet who offers a deeper analysis of the interiors depicted by Johannes Vermeer.

I hope they will be of some help!

Woman Holding a Balance

“Sus formas visuales hacen referencia al mundo mental, al interior de las personas, a la autoconciencia. Trasciende lo cotidiano, presenta una belleza absoluta. Se dice que es un pintor que detiene el tiempo, el momento, el instante congelado”.

Alejandro Vergara, jefe de Conservación de pintura flamenca y escuelas del Norte

Inspiration
Vermeer is thought to have been inspired in The Goldweigher painted by Pieter de Hooch in 1664. Nevertheless, this influence is far from being coincidental as it indicates the close relation that existed between the two painters. While De Hooch appears to be more concentrated on the geometrical and the anecdotal details, Vermeer adds spiritual and allegorical values to the scene, becoming more complex in meaning.

Woman Holding a Balance (1664)              The Goldweigher (1664)

Composition
As it can be clearly seen, the central point of the painting is occupied by the balance, as the orthogonal lines seem to meet in the balance.

The Woman
The Woman appears to be wearing delicate and elegant clothes that seem to correspond to the Dutch Haute bourgeoisie. She is wearing an open white cup which was not only ornamental but it served to protect the coiffeur when dressing. This white cup can also be seen in other paintings by Vermeer and in other paintings of the time.

The Last Judgment
The woman appears to be framed in the painting that darkly hangs behind her: The Last Judgment. It has been claimed that it corresponds to Jacob de Backer as he also painted The Last Judgment with the particularity of depicting Christ with his arms raised.

Pieter de Backer, The Last Judgment (1580)

The Balance
The woman is attentively waiting until the two scales of the balance come into balance. Nevertheless, there is nothing on the pans that is being weight. Therefore, this suggests that something more important than mere pearls is being weight.

The Mirror
The woman is looking at a mirror that hangs from the wall. Mirrors were quite recurrent in the 17th century arts. For example: Annibale Carrici’s Venus Adorned by the Graces (1590-5) and Diego Velázque’s  La Venus del Espejo (1648-51). They meant self-knowledge and truth

Themes
Since the central focus is on the balance, this painting suggests the importance of sel-temperance and balance to conduct our life. As the woman seems to be framed in the Last Judgment it can also be claimed that this painting is warning us about the ephemeral of human life and that the earthly pleasures are not important. Nevertheless, the woman’s expression of the face inspires calm and tranquility which provides us with comfort and reassurance.

References

• Essential Vermeer [online]. [Accesed 14th May 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.essentialvermeer.com/
• The National Gallery of Art, Washington. Johannes Vermeer’s Woman Holding a Balance. [online][Accesed 14th May 2009]. Available from World Wide Web:http://www.nga.gov/feature/vermeer/index.shtm
• Samaniego, F. (2003) El mito de Vermeer conmociona el Prado. El País.com.cultura, 18 February 2003. [online] Accessed 28th May 2009]. Available from World Wide Web:http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/mito/Vermeer/conmociona/Prado/elpepucul/20030218elpepicul_1/Tes

Woman Holding a Balance

These words have been inspiring for my story for the ESP module, as they concisely explain the essence of the painting:

 

“‘Woman with a Balance’ provides us not with a warning but with comfort and reassurance; it makes us feel not vanity of life but its preciousness. Against the violent baroque agitation of the painting behind her, the woman asserts a quite, imperturbable calm, the quintessence of Vermeer’s vision.”

Edward A. Snow, A Study of Vermeer, 1979

 

 

Reference: Essentiel Vermeer.com [Accesed on March, 23 2009]: http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/woman_holding_a_balance.html

“Between the light and dark,

between this world and the next,

between maidenhood and motherhood

she pauses, held in balance

like the balance she holds. [. . .]“

Reference: Girl with a Pearl Earring: An Interactive Study-Package of Materials of ESP (2007-2008).

First steps. . .

Woman Holding a Balance – Johannes Vermeer (c. 1665)

When I first saw Vermeer’s painting entitled A Woman Weighing Pearls (also known as The Woman Holding a Balance), I realized that there could be a challenging story behind this puzzling and mysterious picture.

Unlike many of his other paintings, A Woman Weighing Pearls appears to be quite dark and allegorical at the same time, which denotes multiple interpretations. In fact, when I first looked at it different questions came into mind: why is the woman holding a balance? Why is the balance in the centre of the painting? Is she confronting a kind of Final Judgement? Is she weighing something more personal than pearls?

Moreover, I do not really know why, but the delicate expression of the woman’s face reminded me of  the figure of Mariana, in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure when she is asked if she is a wife, a maid or a widow and she answers:

Mariana

My lord, I do confess I ne’er was married;

And confess, besides, I am no maid.

I have known my husband; yet my husband

Knows not that ever he knew me.

(Act V scene 1: lines 185-8)

These are just a few ideas which came into my mind randomly when I first saw the picture, now I need to go deeper into the picture and let’s see what I come up with!

[This post belongs to Janire Cascajar]

The painting by Vermeer Woman Weighing Pearls (1662-1664), also known as Woman Holding a Balance, is one of the most famous paintings of the artist.

 

WHY?

As I heard the steps outside the room I began to stretch myself rolling over my rickety bed. When I opened my eyes in the darkness the chant of the rooster sounded. It was time to get up and as soon as I opened the window the first rays of the sun filled the little room with bright colours. The day was beautiful and after putting on my clothes quickly, I went to the kitchen where there was a lot of work to do. Although I was not the only maid of the house, the lady was always asking me to do the hardest works. She was so rude with me. Maybe she knew everything.

 

When I was in the corridor I stopped by the studio. That room was not like the other rooms of the house. Nobody, neither the lady, was allowed to enter that room. In fact, I was the only maid who had been there. I was the maid in charge of the cleaning of the room when the dust was invading the place. ‘What was he painting now? What was happening there?’, I could not stop my feelings and slowly I opened the door enough to peer into the forbidden room. There was him. He had his back to me and he was making small, delicate brushstrokes on the canvas. At the bottom, the Lady was posing for him. She was standing by a table full of jewellery. Her jewellery. She, with a calm look on her face, was looking down while holding a balance with her right hand. He looked her, scrutinizing everything, absorbing all the details, running his eyes over her figure, memorizing her features. I felt jealous of her.

 

That image reflected part of the reality. Many mornings as I was cleaning the furniture or mopping the floor on my knees near her bedroom, I could hear the clinking of the pearls. She used to sit down and weigh those tiny pearly spheres in her little balance. It was amazing how they shined. They were like little and perfect drops of water which absorbed and reflected the light, splashing of shine the rough dressing table. My Lord always liked to paint domestic scenes, capturing the everyday life. I still remembered when he told Lucy that he wanted to paint her pouring the milk to a pitcher as she used to do early in the morning. ‘I’ll call it The Milkmaid’ he said firmly. I closed the door of the studio and went to the kitchen.

 

My main task in the house was the kitchen and while I was handling the cooking utensils and preparing the food I could not stop thinking about what had happened two days before. My body was there but my mind flew towards that meeting. That day, following the Lady’s instructions, I went to the studio to clean. I was praying that he not come. We had met just a couple of times in secrecy and, in spite of the deep love I felt for him since the first time I saw him, I decided that I could not keep that situation. It was dangerous for me. However, as I was cleaning carefully not to move anything from its place, he burst into the room, closing the door behind him. He knew that nobody would come in.

 

He looked at me with his pretty, brown eyes. His look was sincere and intense as if he wanted to look inside me. I did not want to face him so I looked down. Just feeling his eyes on me was enough to remember his soft kisses on my skin. I felt naked. He knew all about me, my body, my feeling, and my inner self. ‘You are my star’, he told me, ‘my sweet pearl’. Then, he began to approach me and I did not move. But I raised my eyes staring at him. He stopped in front of me, so close that I could smell his skin, a deep fragrance of linseed oil filling my sense. ‘You will sparkle in my heavens forever’, he whispered as he caressed my face with both hands. ‘This cannot be’, I told him crying, ‘please, don’t touch me, don’t love me even. It’s not right, please!’. Although I was dying inside I knew that I was not born to be a lover. I moved around going away from him, from his captivating presence that made me tremble. Suddenly, he crossed the room towards me. I could see in his eyes that he was mad with love. I did not recognize him. That was a stranger’s look. Maybe he was out of his mind. I never believed that I could be afraid of him, but I was mistaken. Then, he pounced towards me. I stifled an anguished scream and ran to the door. When I went out almost running from the studio I bumped into the Lady who was standing outside by the door. She looked my pale face; she was shocked. I just averted my eyes from her and went to the kitchen.

 

Two days had passed since and the situation had worsened. The Lady had been talking about me with the Lord. I knew it because Lucy told me that she had heard the argument and the continuous shouts and crying of the Lady. Since we bumped into each other at the corridor she had been looking at me with hatred. She tried to make me feel inferior, ordering me the worst tasks of the house. I picked up the peelings of the potatoes, threw them to the rubbish bin and began to cut the onions. She was his wife. No matter how hard we wanted to be together. She was his wife. Everyday, when I came into their room and I removed the sheets they were still warm from their bodies, mingled in love. Suddenly, I heard bangs, loud shouts and slams. Lucy came into the kitchen almost running. ‘Take this’, she told me giving me a couple of pounds she had in her apron’s pocket, ‘go to the market right now, they are arguing!’. I was astounded and she rushed me again, ‘if she comes and you are here…’. I reacted, I put off my apron and taking the money I left the house without looking back. They were arguing, she wanted me out of the house. I knew inside me that he did not have the courage to defend me openly. He was more an artist than a man. ‘My sweet pearl’, he had told me. That was what he saw in me. My beauty. The reflection of the light on my pale and pearly skin. The art in my image and in my features. His eyes of artist were the eyes that looked at me with such a sincere and pure love that he invaded my soul. But, why didn’t he paint me? He had painted Lucy, why didn’t he choose me?

 

I was at the market, wandering aimlessly, surrounded by people but feeling alone and engrossed in my thoughts. By accident, I brushed past a stall of fruit knocking some apples over. And I realised that everybody was looking at me. As I continued walking, I could hear the people gossiping about me. ‘They were together in the studio’, I heard somebody whispering, ‘yes, they are lovers’, I heard again. I felt so ashamed that I hastened to the following street. There I saw the church. I thought that there I could wait until the market stalls were empty.

 

What time was it? It should be late. I could not hear the noise of the market, so maybe I could come back home safe from the whispering of the crow. It was time to come back home. Home? Was that house my home? No. My home was far away from here. But it was not important for me, not right now. After the death of my parents, two years ago, my aunts thought that the best would be to send me to the city. One of them knew about a house where I could work as a maid. For them it was an honour that the well-known painter Johannes Vermeer took in their orphan niece providing her a work, food and a cold rickety bed to sleep. Mr. Vermeer. My Lord. Who could imagine that I would fall in love with him? And that this love would be requited?

 

But now, I am alone again. I went out of the church and made my way to the house. I did not know what I was going to find there. Before I had run away. I had run away from her. When I opened the kitchen door at the rear of the house, Lucy who was still tidying up the kitchen told me that the Lady was waiting for me. My heart began to beat strongly. I walked towards the dining-room. There was the Lady. I could barely conceal my nerves. She looked at me with hatred, coolly, keeping the silence. Then, she smiled with malice. ‘Did you think that he would protect you?’, she asked spitting out the words. I was stunned. ‘I want you out of my house right now, out!’, she shouted beside herself. I went out of the dining-room feeling the loser in the war of love.

 

After packing my belongings I looked around my bedroom. There was a question there, in my mind, taking possession of everything. I got to know it. Why? Why? I took my little suitcase and I went out to the corridor. Why? I stopped in the middle and leaving the suitcase on the floor I turned to the left looking to the studio’s door. It was closed. He was there. And I could not stop repeating that question in my mind. Why? I opened the door and I saw him looking through the window. ‘Why?’, I asked him. He stared at me in silence, with the cowardice on his face. ‘Why didn’t you paint me?’, I told him almost crying. Then, he, one of the best painters of the time, answered: ‘how could I?’.

 

I walked away from the house, carrying my suitcase, and with my heart broken. I knew he was staring at the window. As I was walking I felt his eyes on me, scrutinizing everything, absorbing all the details, running his eyes over my figure, memorizing my features. ‘After all, maybe, someday, he would paint me’, I thought sadly.

• This is my story for ESP class, already handed in to Claire.