Look Again and Tell Me What You See

“Looking at a painting should be like looking through a lens. We should sense the mystery of the world—how much we ordinarily do not see.”

Johannes Vermeer (Delft, 1632-1675)

Web Gallery of Art: Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window

Signature: Traces of signature (?).

Provenance: Acquired in 1724 by August III, elector of Saxony, together with a number of other paintings bought in Paris. The seller threw in the picture as a present, to sweeten the deal. It was then attributed to Rembrandt, and the ascription was subsequently weakened to “manner” or “school of.” In 1783, it was engraved as a work by Govaert Flinck. The name “Van der Meer from Delft” occurred for the first time in a catalog dating from 1806, to be changed back to Flinck in 1817. From 1826 to 1860, the appellation was altered to Pieter de Hooch. It is only since 1862 that the correct identification obtains. The only Dutch provenance that could possibly apply is the sale Pieter van der Lip, Amsterdam, 1712, no. 22, “A Woman Reading in a Room, by van der Meer of Delft fl 110.” Unfortunately, the text is not specific enough to distinguish it from the one at the Rijksmuseum, Woman in Blue Reading a Letter.

The above underlines the difficulties inherent to the establishment of Vermeer’s catalog. Not a single work can be traced back to the painter’s studio, nor are there any letters or contracts extant. The task of attribution rests squarely upon the shoulders of the individual critic, which explains the multiplicity of divergent opinions. In this painting, a young woman stands in the center of the composition, facing in profile an open window to the left. In the foreground is a table covered with the same Oriental rug encountered in the Woman Asleep. On it is the identical Delft plate with fruit. The window reflects the girl’s features, while to the right the large green curtain forms a deceptive frame. She is precisely silhouetted against a bare wall that reflects the light and envelops her in its luminosity.

We are here confronted with one of the salient aspects of Vermeer’s sensibility and originality. It is the stillness that stands out, the inner absorption, the remoteness from the outer world. She concentrates entirely upon the letter, holding it firmly and tautly, while she absorbs its content with utmost attention.

In the technique, the artist avows again Rembrandtesque derivation. He paints in small fatty dabs to model the forms, and obtains the desired effects by means of impasto highlights opposed to the deeper tonalities – just as the master from Leyden was wont to do. The painting is relatively large, and the smallness of the figure as opposed to its surroundings stresses immateriality and depersonalization. Vermeer considerably changed the composition in the course of execution.

Much has been written about the trompe-l’oeil effect of the curtain. It is a pictorial artifice used by many other Dutch masters and in keeping with an old European tradition. Rembrandt, Gerard Dou, Nicolaes Maes, and many still-life and even landscape painters made use of such curtains as a means of simulating effects that now seem theatrical. The light background can be found in many paintings by Carel Fabritius, the Goldfinch from 1654 at the Mauritshuis in The Hague being the most famous example.

Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Kren and Daniel Marx., In Web Gallery of Art. Retrieved May 17, 2009, from http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/v/vermeer/02a/06gread.html

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

View of Delft III

Vermeer’s View of Delft and his Vision of Reality, an article by dr. Arthur K. Wheelock, jr. and Kees Kaldenbach

Another complete article about Johannes Vermeer’s painting View of Delft. This time, the text offers us also some planes of the city and of the perspective in which the painting was done.

In the words of teh authors, the aim of teh article is to examine the nature of Vermeer’s image, both to understand the manner in which he created such a naturalistic impression and how he has transformed a topographical view into one that is powerful and audacious in the way Thoré-Bürger and others have described.

References:

- Vermeer’s View of Delft and his vision of reality [online]. [17-05-09]. WWW Page: http://www.xs4all.nl/~kalden/verm/artibus-hist1982.htm

Characters in “The Procuress”

In this famour picture by Vermeer we can clearly distinguish four different characters. A whore, a procuress, a young man and anotherman drinking some spirits are the protagonists of the picture.

The whore is a young girl with fair features and clean clothes. She is ready to do her job with the young man in red who is touching her. She holds a glass of some spirits with which she intends to make her suitor go drunk. Whores were supposed to make their lovers go as drunk as possible at that time, and providing they got very drunk, sex was no longer an option for them. She seems to be posing very tranquil and she offers both the viewer and the young man a fair smile. She is presented as a sensitive young girl who is ready to make her job.

The young man in red is the suitor to the young whore in yellow. He is a young man -probably he is a soldier- that wants to have some sexual relationships with that girl. He is waring a red coat -maybe symbol of passion and sexual desire- and a large, black hat with which he is trying to cover the girl, as if he was willing to shelter her -probably meaning he wants to take on her in the bed. He also has his hand on her left breast, as though he was embracing her, and sexually possessing her -showing his clear intentions- at the same time.

The procuress is the woman in black. She is not easily recognised because she is not like most procuresses in other pictures. Her features are fair and she even looks like a man. She is paying heed to the economical transaction that is taking place in the picture. What is more, in early stages of the picture, she was receiving some money -this means she was more active- from the young suitor. Eventually, she is just lookign at him and making sure everything goes perfectly. However, the viewer should notice the malice in ehr eyes, meaning she is no fool and she knows how to deal with economical and sexual issues. In fact, the procuresses were frequently retired whores that had enoght money to lead their own business.

The man in black is much of a jester. He is a comical character that functions rather as the narrator of the story. As a matter of fact, he is looking at the viewer, as if he wanted to tell the story to whoever is examining it. He is aside the action and he wears black clothes so that he does not attract too much attention to himself. Many critics agree nowadays that he is a self-portrait of the very Vermeer. Actually, it was very common to find the painters of those “brothels” in their own pictures. Thus, Vermeer could be but following the current fashion.

Andrei Vázquez Latorre

Bibliography:

· http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/procuress.html.

· http://www.bergerfoundation.ch/Vermeer/english/entremetteuse.html.

Objects in Vermeer’s “The Procuress”

Out of the matter of characters, the objects displayed throughout the place in the picture are also painted with mastery. The sublime and most minute details have been painted with tender and care. Thus, the effect the viewer has at first sight is that of a wonderful piece.

To begin with, the very glass the whore holds betwen her fingers is a finest representation on a “römer” glass, meant for iddle hands, this is, it is wider than normal glasses so that the cup does not slip out of the fingers. Secondly, the glass the man in black holds is very typical in 17th century paintings, and its details have been kept with tender mastery. Even the spirits within the glasses seem to have a social meaning. Usually, brothel wine was corrupted or adulterated candy syrup. On the other hand, beer was also a popular drink. The jester -the man in black- is probably drinking beer, as it is no clear what the young whore is having -or offering to her suitor.

Thirdly, the viewer is given a sight of a cittern, which the jester is holding in his arms. The cittern is not an alien instrument to Vermeer’s time’s pictures, in fact, it is a very common musical instrument which even Vermeer used quite a few times. The cittern represents sexual desire, and so it has been depicted so many times in order to give more strengh to that idea of sex in many similar pictures.

Moreover, the viewer can find a big carpet that covers almost half the picture. This carpet represent a growing fashion in the 16th and 17th centuries of having those objects from Oriental lands that people used as ornamental tools. The carpet in the picture is drawn and painted with much care and has a magnificent look. The black coat from the jester covers part of the carpet to contrast its effect, for the carpet is very large and draws too much attention. The dark coat’s aim is to oppose the aesthetic and attractive strengh of the carpet and make the main attraction focus on the young couple. This coat has been added in a later stage of the painting.

Last but not least, the jug is presented also with a superb look. It is a fine piece of art in a lrger piece of art. The precision of the painting is astonishing and in no other Vermeer paiting could any find another object or piece of decoration as fine and detailed as the one presented in The Procuress.

Andrei Vzquez Latorre

Bibliography:

· http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/procuress.html.

· http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404706599.html.

“The Procuress” in Vermeer’s career and in its time

The Procuress is one of the three pictures that have a concrete date in Vermeer’s career as a painter. This information is given by the very painter on the low bottom of the picture: “i v Meer 1656″ -”ivM” in ligature. This makes the picture not only one of the most popular pictures by Vermeer which usually leads and represents his early stage, but also one of the pictures that can be taken to draw the line of evolution of Vermeer’s painting skills.

Another important aspect Vermeer took into account when painting is the topic and the implications of painting a “brothel”. Brothel painters usually included a self-portrait in the pictures and Vermeer, as critics say nowadays, is no exception. He is supposed to have painted himself in the skin of the jester, the man in black in the left side of the picture. Nevertheless, he has also included original elements in his picture. First of all, the very procuress is very different from the usual style of depicting them. They tend to be very old and decrepit, full of wrinkles and they are often much worried of the economic transaction. They also tend to show very rude manners and strict behaviour. On the other hand, Vermeer’s procuress is much calmer and seems relatively kind. Besides, she looks quite pretty. It is widely known that procuresses were very aware of the power of money and sex, and they were very sly. This is somehting that Vermeer has depicted fairly well, for the procuress in his paiting seems to be a sly, cunning woman.

Moreover, the very whore too seems to have something different and original in herself. Whores used to be very sensual, with exotic and erotic elements that dressed them superb, like that of Gerrit van Honthorst, though the one in Vermeer’s work is not so much of an exotic woman with big breasts. She wears a yellow dress with no neckline. She also has this white cap with delicate details. She is no common whore for a brothel picture.

On the other hand, The Procuress is a painting that marks the beginning of Vermeer’s true and best carrer. Later works are examples of his mastery over light and shadow. In The Procuress, Vermeer experiments with the chiaroscuro effect, as can be seen in below in the very picture. Also, although the warm colors used, which remind the viewer of Rembrandt and his followers -1650s-, and even maybe Maes, the picture, due to its topic and structure, is considered as a piece of the Utrecht Caravaggists. The resemblance between those -frequent in the 1620s- and The Procuress is clear, though the influence of Rembrendt is also clear.

Andrei Vázquez Latorre

Bibliography

· http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/v/vermeer/01-early/04procu.html.

· http://www.metmuseum.org/special/Vermeer_Delft/8.R.htm.

· http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/procuress.html.

· http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404706599.html.

The Painting in the 20th century

In 1742 the Elector of Saxony, August III, acquired this painting, which he believed to be a Rembrandt; the previous year he had bought The Procuress. During the Second World War both pictures were among Dresden’s works of art hidden for safety and consequently spared from the British bombing. In 1945 they were seized by the Red Army as booty and secretly taken to Moscow. When the question of returning Dresden’s pictures arose, the Soviet minister of culture wanted East Germany to allow two works to remain in Russia in gratitude. His choice, a masterpiece by Giorgione (c. 1476/8-1510) and Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, is evidence of the importance of this early Vermeer. This proposal was dropped and both Vermeer’s were among the paintings returned to Dresden in 1955.

Martin Bailey, (1995) In Essential Vermeer. Retrieved April 17, 2009, from http://www.essentialvermeer.com

Understanding “A Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window”

This painting is part of a group of works painted by Vermeer in the late 1650s which mark the start of his mature period. Other works of this period include Officer and Laughing Girl (New York, The Frick Collection), The Milkmaid (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum), and The Glass of Wine (Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemaldegalerie). In these paintings the artist depicts the corner of a relatively large room which is lit through a window on the left side. This compositional formula is inspired by the work of Pieter de Hooch (upper right), who nonetheless differs from Vermeer in locating his figures closer to the foreground. Vermeer’s figures at this period are smaller than those in his earlier works, while his technique is more precise.

The figure in the background of this simple and ordered interior rests his head on his hand in a melancholy attitude, while in the foreground a young woman takes a wine glass which an elegantly dressed man hands to her. The young woman’s smile and the man’s attitude indicate that we are witnessing a scene of seduction, and that the girl is largely accepting her admirer’s advances.

Also starting at this period is a greater attention to the way in which light falls on the objects and different materials, highlighting the textures (second upper right). Along with the characteristically self-absorbed character of his figures, the most famous characteristic of Vermeer’s work is its lifelikeness, the result of a complex and exquisite exercise in the transformation of reality. Some aspects of this painting allow us to approximate the way in which the artist achieved these ends. The lower frame of the window, for example, directs the spectator’s gaze towards a chair which extends the gaze further so that we arrive at the strongly, illuminated letter which the young woman is holding. The reflection of the girl in the window emphasizes the importance of the letter, which becomes the psychological axis of the painting. As in other works by Vermeer, the chair acts to clarify the spatial relations between the elements in the room, in this case the table and the end wall. The open window which reflects the girl’s face projects a slight shadow on the wall, echoing its shape and also helping to define the location of the girl’s face. The angle of the fruit bowl and the girl’s forearm are parallel and thus visually related, so that we connect the golden sleeve of the girl with the large green curtain on the right. This type of formal relation between the elements in the painting defines its visual rhythms, which the spectator becomes aware of in a slow and gradual process.

We know from x-rays that initially the end wall, just above and to the right of the young woman, had a painting of Cupid (the same one that appears in A Lady Standing at the Virginals), but that Vermeer eliminated this element in the final composition. This image would have made it clear that the content of the letter which the woman is reading is of an amorous nature. In its initial form, the vanishing point of the perspective would have been in the center of the lower part of the painting of Cupid, which would therefore have been a very important element in the painting. It is revealing of Vermeer’s working method that when he removed the painting he did not alter the scene further, other than adding the curtain on the right to balance the visual weight of the other side of the composition. The ability to express the emotions of his figures in a particular situation is one of Vermeer’s most unique characteristics. In this case, his decision to remove the painting of Cupid from the end wall results in an exceptionally evocative scene; nothing distracts us from the painting’s message, which is the idea of communication with an absent loved one.

At the time when this painting was created in the late 1650s, Vermeer was in the process of changing his pictorial technique. Although in some earlier paintings we see the appearances of small dots of light, this technique, which functions to momentarily detain our gaze on specific areas of the painting, becomes ever more widespread in his work. The technique, which was possibly inspired by the images produced by an instrument known as a camera obscura and also has precedents in the work of artists such as Willem Kalf or Willem van Aelst would soon become one of Vermeer’s most distinctive characteristics.

The idea of including a curtain in the painting which seems to form part of the space occupied by the spectator has numerous precedents and became popular in Dutch art around the mid-17th century (lower right). This device was partially inspired by reality, as we know from inventories and from paintings of picture collections that some paintings, in particular the most important ones or those that depicted nudes, were covered with cloths.

There are also precedents for this in religious painting, indicating that curtains also added an effect of mystery and surprise to a scene, and contributed to its lifelikeness in that it confused the painted with the real space. The use of a cloth for illusionistic ends has an important classical precedent which Vermeer undoubtedly knew of Pliny the Elder’s anecdote in his Natural History in which he recounts that the Greek painter Zeuxis wished to prove his artistic superiority to his rival Parrhasius’ and thus painted some grapes which were so realistic that some birds attempted to peck at them. Parrhasius’ response was to paint a curtain over the picture which he did with such skill that Zeuxis tried to pull it back.

Alejandro Vergara, (2003) In Essential Vermeer. Retrieved April 17, 2009, from http://www.essentialvermeer.com

Vermeer’s Camera Obscura

It is claimed that over 100 years of speculation and controversy  the great seventeenth-century Dutch artist, Johannes Vermeer, used the camera obscura to create some of the most famous images in Western art.

The so-called Vermeers Camera web site tries to uncover the truth about the painter’s possible knowledge of seventeenth-century optical science to develop his style and choice of subject matter.

In order to support the idea that Vermeer experimented with new technology , there are some interesting materials available in the web-page.

To begin with, we can find two books. The first one: Vermeer’s Camera: afterthoughts and a reply to critics, by Philip Steadman (27/03/2002), which thought it got a generally kind critical reception, there have been a few dubious notices by Vermeer scholars and curators of 17th century Dutch painting.

The book shows how it is possible to reconstruct the three-dimensional spaces seen in ten of Vermeer’ s paintings of domestic interiors, using a method of ‘inverse perspective’ (roughly speaking, a reversal of the normal procedures of perspective drawing).

Here you have some of the pictures shown throughout the pages:

Figure 10: Map of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands by Claes Jansz Visscher (left) compared with Vermeer’s painted version in ‘Allegory of Painting’ (right). (The ornamental borders showing views of Dutch towns are omitted in both cases.)

The second book, also written by Philip Staedman, is a brief chapter sypnoses with added images not found in the book. It starts with a review of how the camera obscura worked  throgout history and then we are moved into the subject of Vermer´s use of it, giving detailed examples and reconstructions of his paintings with great precision in order to demonstrate how the painter set up a camera obscura. Eventually,  the book concludes with a discussion of the influence of optical images on Vermeer´s work.

The following images belong to chapter 6 of the book:

And finally, the most striking among the materials is  the three-dimensional computer models produced by Mr Yasuo Furuichi of Yokosuka City, Japan.

The images remain his copyright. Mr Furuichi has produced a short movie entitled ‘Before the Glass of Wine’, from which a series of stills are illustrated here. He is now working on models of all the pieces of furniture appearing in Vermeer’s paintings, which he is storing in ‘Vermeer’s warehouse’. He plans to make reconstructions of the three-dimensional spaces shown in some of those pictures where the floor tiles are not visible, and which were not reconstructed in ‘Vermeer’s Camera’ for that reason.

These are some of the models you can find in this section:

View of Delft II

Some landscapes in art

I have found a blog in the Internet that is about landscapes in art. It is a colection of articles about different paintings in which landscapes are depicted. I have linked this post with the article about View of Delft. In it, we find a reflection about some points of the painting by Vermeer. The writer talks about painting techniques shown in the picture, and analyzes the painting’s history and impact.

There are also some quotations of books and other writers.

References:

- Some landscapes: View of Delft [online] [17-05-09] WWW Page: http://some-landscapes.blogspot.com/2009/02/view-of-delft.html

View of Delft I

View of Delft, by Johannes Vermeer, a guided art history tour through this painting

This is a webpage full of detailed information about the paint of Vermeer. I use it in my presentation of the picture. In the web, you can fine information about the way the painting is done and information about how Delft is depicted in the picture. There is also information about what has changed in the city. And there are link through the text that link you to more details, that will appear at the top of the text.

There are also references to other paint by Vermeer and to other analysis and interesting webpages of View of Delft. You can also email the author of the analysis.

References:

- The ‘View of Delft’ by Johannes Vermeer, a guided art history tour through this painting [online] [17-05-09] WWW Page: http://www.xs4all.nl/~kalden/verm/view/Vermeer_main.html

The Woman with a Pearl Necklace

                           The Woman with a Pearl Necklace

 

  Introduction: 

     When looking to all the paintings of Vermeer, we find that they are moments which we experience in our lives and that what makes his paintings so beautiful and eternal. But what had attracted me in The Women with a Pearl Necklace is that we see in it an action which we do in everyday life, women and men. For some people, the lady is admiring herself, for others she is looking to the beautiful pearl necklace, but for others she is thinking of something else which may or may not have a relation with the pearl necklace. The painting may seem very calm and silent but in a way it talks to the viewer and breath into him many feelings. This painting in particular is putting us in the state in which we come to decide which way to take, which things we like, and what do we want to.patron, Van Ruijven

 

 Description of the Painting:

    The woman with the a Pearl Necklace portrays a woman gazing into a mirror while holding two yellow ribbons that are attached to a pearl necklace she wears. She stands behind a table on which there are many different subjects and a chair in the corner of a sunlit room.

 Comparing to other Paintings:

 

     In this painting, along with Woman in Blue Reading a Letter and Woman Holding a Balance, Vermeer made a composition in which he showed a single woman focusing on some kind of occupation. In each case, the woman is shown turning inward with her thoughts, and using some minor physical activity to give herself some countenance. In this case, she gazes into a mirror while holding two yellow ribbons attached to a pearl necklace around her neck. The distance between the lonely figure to the right and the mirror on the wall, next to the window to the left, is filled by a heavy table slightly to the fore. This part of the painting is very dark, with nothing more than a Chinese vase and a rug irregularly covering the table to occupy the space.

The falling light in from the left, dispersed by the creamy bare wall, shows the meditative young woman admiring her reflection in the small mirror.  The stillness and introspection of the models reflect the search for aloof withdrawal and serenity as taught by Buddhist writings. It is in this sense that we must understand and appreciate Vermeer’s creations during his maturity.  

      The Woman with a pearl necklace, now in Berlin, is one of the largest of Vermeer’s small, single-figure paintings, having a few centimeters more height than the National Gallery paintings, for example. It is probably the work listed in the 1696 inventory as “a young lady adorning herself, very beautiful”. Yet despite this and its size, it was priced at only 63 guilders, in contrast with the smaller but in many ways similar Woman holding a balance.

      Even within the restricted range and constant repetitions of Vermeer’s pictorial topography, these two most narrowly coincide. Only the Woman tuning a Lute, in the Metropolitan, New York, which is on the scale of the Woman with a pearl necklace, might be compared with them. All three show the window butted against the plain rear wall; the leading, where it is visible, is the clear version of the heraldic pattern seen in the other Berlin painting, the Glass of wine. All three have a similar heavy table placed against the window wall, slightly to the fore of the window. Two further similarities are shared by the Woman with a pearl necklace and Woman holding a balance: the carpet covering the table is rucked back to form an irregular range of ridges and valleys, at once exposing the bare table-top and obscuring the objects on it, and beside the window hangs a similar mirror. Oddly, perhaps, the mirror into which the woman with a pearl necklace is looking is smaller than that in the Woman holding a balance. In reproduction the two appear to make a pair not dissimilar to the two in the National Gallery, London. In reality, the difference in size means that they cannot have been intended as pendants in the strict sense. Nevertheless, as they both were, in all probability, bought directly from the artist by his patron, Van Ruijven, it may be that the second piece (whichever that might have been) was painted in the knowledge that the two works would remain in the one collection and be seen in a similar light.

 

References:

Retrieved March 17, 2009, from: 

http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/v/vermeer/03a/19woman.html

http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/v/vermeer/03a/19woman.html

http://www.mystudios.com/vermeer/19/vermeer-pearl-detail-woman.html

http://www.vermeer-foundation.org/Woman-with-a-Pearl-Necklace-(detail)-1662-64.html

http://www.paintinghere.com/painting/Woman_with_a_Pearl_Necklace_7109.html

http://www.essentialvermeer.com/timelines/timeline_vermeers_life_4.html

http://www.essentialvermeer.com/cat_about/necklace.html

http://www.bibliotecadigital.ufmg.br/dspace/bitstream/1843/ECAP-7A3H7K/1/dissertacao_mestrado_miriam_vieira.pdf

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).

“A Study of Vermeer” by Edward Snow

The following web page: http://vermeer0708.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/images.jpeg is a very good link to the Dutch painter.

Edward Snow makes a detailed study on the paintings by Johannes Vermeer, providing us with excellent pieces of information and interesting interpretations focused on art and sexuality. In pages 91 and 92 we can find the so-called chapter “The enigma on the image“,which will change our feelings about the picture giving as the opportunity to think, imagine and acquire a new point of view when looking at The Concert.

Actually the scene of the trio around the piano hides a high sense of eroticism and mystery.

Girl Reading a Letter – Lego and comment

This is what I have just found on the Internet. 

“We are confronted with one of the salient aspects of Vermeer’s sensibility and originilaty. It is the stillness that stands out, the inner absorption, the remoteness from the outer world. She concentrates entirely upon the letter, holding it firmly and tantly, while she absorbs its content with utmost attention.”

Virtual Vermeer. Retrieved March 11, 2009, from http://www.virtualvermeer.com/index.html 

 

Besides, I have found a funny picture. It is a representation of the scene of this painting I have chosen in Lego. 

 

 

This picture has been taken from this webpage: MocPages

A Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window

“Vermeer’s genius was in probing those moments in life when one feels alone and immersed in one’s thoughts. His are essentially private works, invitations to pause and partake of the quiet intimacy of the scene. Almost as in poetry, he suggests moods and attitudes in his figures that are recognizable yet not precisely defined. In this painting a girl stands in a corner of a room before an open window, her thoughts are totally absorbed in the letter she is reading. The walls, curtains, and table define the physical limits of her space; the reflection of her image in the glass emphasizes the inner nature of her thoughts. Her world is still.”

Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., Jan Vermeer, 1981

• Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., (1981) In Essential Vermeer. Retrieved March 9, 2009, from Essential Vermeer