Secret Yearnings
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Vermeer
Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window
1657
Yearning for the outside world Open windows frequently
have a figurative meaning in Vermeer's paintings.
Taken together with the
letter, which the girl is holding, this motif represents the desire to break
free
from the restrictions of the home and make contact with the outside world.
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Love Letters
Vermeer's Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, now in Dresden, is
usually considered to be an early work. It shows a young woman at an open
window, reading with great inner tension and attentiveness a love letter that
has been addressed to her. We see her in profile, but her face is reflected at a
slight angle in the lightly coloured, uneven glass panes of the leaded window
(the same feature occurs in the picture Soldier and a Laughing Girl.
The fact that it is open does of course superficially serve to increase the
amount of light falling into the rather dark room, but in another sense it
represents the woman's longing to extend her domestic sphere, and her desire for
contact with the outside world, from which she, as a housewife forced to keep to
her society's norms, is largely isolated. This longing to break free from
isolation is occasionally also a feature of Pieter de Hooch's paintings, such as
the one which features a woman standing in an entryway and looking out onto the
street. The bowl of fruit in Vermeer's Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window,
which is lying on the folds of the table rug, is a symbol of extramarital
relations, which broke the vow of chastity. Such a relationship is being planned
or continued by means of this letter, and the apples and peaches (malum persicum)
are intended to remind us of Eve's transgression. The yellowish-green silk
curtain and rail is an artistic piece of bravura on the part of Vermeer. It is
difficult to decide whether it is to be seen as part of the picture, a curtain
in the room, like others that Vermeer uses, pushed to one side to reveal what is
going on, or whether -as in Rembrandt's 1646 picture of the Holy Family, now in
Kassel - it is meant to create the illusion of a protective curtain hung in
front of the painting.
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Vermeer
Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window (detail)
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Vermeer
Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window
(detail)
The Fall of Eve
The letter is the start of a secret love affair.
Apples and peaches remind us of Eve's Fall.
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Another woman who is lost in thought, completely engrossed in reading the letter
she has just received, is the Woman in Blue Reading a Letter. Like the
girl in the Dresden painting, she is facing the window, which is not visible,
though the brightness of the wall on the left would suggest the presence of such
a source of light. The woman may well be pregnant. If that is indeed the case,
her reading of this letter would be a moral contradiction of the respectability
of marriage, which, according to contemporary writings on marriage, was an
institution that was designed to ensure the reproduction of the species and did
not allow for "unchaste, lascivious thoughts".
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Vermeer
Woman in Blue Reading a Letter
1663-64
Oil on canvas, 46,6 x 39,1 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
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 Vermeer
Woman in Blue Reading a Letter (detail)
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 Vermeer
Woman in Blue Reading a Letter (detail)
Maps of the Netherlands
Vermeer's love of maps becomes apparent in the way he decorates his
interiors. The role of maps was twofold: on the one hand, they
indicated wealth (in the seventeenth century, maps were an expensive
luxury); on the other hand, they refer to a good level of education.
Cartography was still a new science, but was beginning to be held in
high regard.
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Speculation in earlier works on Vermeer that the woman depicted here could well
be his wife, who went through a large number of pregnancies, is immaterial when
we interpret this painting. Even if Catharina Bolnes was the artist's model, the
painting should not be viewed as a biographical document; what is being
portrayed and discussed here is a more general social problem. As in the
painting of the Woman Weighing Pearls, or the Woman with a Pearl
Necklace, the box of pearls is a symbol of Superbia, or vanity, because
this woman is dressing up for her lover.
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Vermeer
Woman Weighing Pearls
c. 1662-64
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Woman Holding a Balance
This painting is also known as Woman Weighing Gold. It
is a solemn, allegorical work, in which a young woman stands before
the symbols of her material wealth, weighing them for their value,
whilst behind her, in the painting on the wall, the figure of Christ
can be seen "weighing" souls. The young woman is clearly pregnant,
and it is significant that the two strongest accents of warm
orange/gold do not emanate from her jewels or her gold but from the
small window, high up in the wall, from which the light falls
directly onto her stomach. It is tempting to read deeper meaning
into this, as comparisons with annunciation paintings unavoidably
spring to mind.
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Vermeer
Woman Weighing Pearls (detail)
Mood of contemplation
Her knowing expression, with gently tilted head and
almost closed eyes, shows her to be more than just idly
enjoying her treasures. Rather, she is at a moment when
she contemplates the meaning of value itself. She is dressed
richly but simply, her head covered by a plain white hood
that is "beaded" with drops of light. On the wall opposite
her is a mirror, suggestive of her quiet self-contemplation.
A Simple Balance
The woman will weigh her gold and pearls on a delicate brass
balance with a gesture of infinite grace. The balance is rendered so
finely that in parts it is barely visible, and touches of glimmering
light shine on the empty pans. This is appropriate since we are again
reminded of the other, final weighing depicted behind her.
Family valuables
A rich blue tablecloth has been pushed back, and
scattered over the table top, spilling out of jewelry boxes, is her
collection of pearls and gold. Each little
orb consists of a single droplet of light, made from
individual touches of paint that are jewel like in
themselves. The flat coins, or gold weights, are given
a sense of roundness by just the slightest higlilight.
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Judgment day
The painting on the wall is a
version of the Last Judgment
possibly by the 16th-century
Flemish altarpiece painter Jean
Bellagamhe (c. 1480-c. 1535).
The air of serenity and contentment
in the quiet room contrasts with the
pitiful chaos of the damned, who
are painted as flat, dim silhouettes
behind the intensely vital, living
form of the woman. |
Vermeer
Woman Weighing Pearls (detail)
Painting within a painting
Vermeer repeatedly gives us hints as to how we should interpret his
paintings.
For instance, the cupid holding the playing card in this painting within
a painting raises doubts as to the virginity of the woman at the virginal.
Judgment day
The painting of the Day of Judgement on the wall
takes on the role of a
commentary on the woman weighing pearls. On the Day of Judgement,
Christ will weigh the souls of the Blessed and the Damned; in the
face of that, this fixation on earthly possessions appears empty and
vain. The women on the page opposite, decked out in pearls and
ribbons, are a reference to this theme of vanity.
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Vermeer
Woman with a Pearl Necklace
c. 1664
Vermeer is portraying the sin of vanity in this picture of a woman,
who is dressed in an ermine-trimmed yellow jacket and is holding the
tapes of her pearl necklace apart.
The painting can therefore be seen as a criticism of such conduct.
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Vermeer
Woman with a Pearl Necklace (detail)
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The woman wearing the yellow, ermine-trimmed jacket (Lady
Writing a Letter), who is herself writing a love letter with
a goose quill as she smiles at the observer, is also smartly dressed
up. A pearl necklace with a yellow ribbon is lying right next to the
letter paper, and it is also possible to make out a jewellery box
and an ink set. In contrast to the Amsterdam picture, which presents
the theme of vanity rather discreetly, the theme is quite
unmistakable here. The inclusion of the decorative ribbons and pearl
earrings is intended to show the woman's craving to be smart and be
admired - though pearls can also have a more positive meaning in
Vermeer's art. For the artist, they were a welcome opportunity to
show off his talents in creating the gradations of yellow, which are
continued in darker tones in the jacket. According to Andrea
Alciatis' Emblemata (Lyons 1550), yellow is a colour
which is amantibus et scortis aptus, or "appropriate for lovers and
whores".
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Vermeer
Lady Writing a Letter
c. 1665-70
This young woman has paused in the act of writing and is looking at us;
she is dressed fashionably, and is wearing ribbons in
her hair and pearls.
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Vermeer
Lady Writing a Letter (detail)
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