Leading by Example
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Vermeer
The Milkmaid
c. 1658-60
This is probably Vermeer's most famous painting. It has been valued
highly right from the start, as is shown by the comparatively high
price
(175 guilders) which this small picture fetched when the paintings
in Vermeer's estate were sold in 1696.
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Women and Virtue
The overwhelming majority of Vermeer's paintings that depict women conform to
the basic trend in Dutch genre painting, in that they criticise vice. It was
their goal to educate people to behave "virtuously" - in other words to conform
to norms of thought and behaviour - and to do this by depicting, in a comic
manner, characters behaving wrongly.
The opposite of this is to educate by presenting the official code of behaviour
by means of an exemplum virtutis (model of virtue); this method was seldom used.
Only three of Vermeer's paintings have this purpose clearly in mind.
The most famous of these is probably The Milkmaid. It was valued highly
right from the start, as is shown by the price (175 guilders) which this small
picture fetched when the paintings in Vermeer's estate were sold in 1696. In
1719, the painting was even described with the words, "The famous milkmaid by
Vermeer of Delft, artistic" (Het vermaerde Melkmeysje, door Vermeer van Delft,
konstig).
Servants were normally portrayed in Dutch paintings as being lazy, as is shown
by Nicolaes Maes' The Lazy Maid, or lecherous. Although it is not
immediately apparent, the latter vice is presented in Gerard Dous' Kitchenmaid
Chopping Onions (1646); this interpretation is justified by the inclusion of
onions (an aphrodisiac) and the hanging chicken (traditionally a sign of carnal
desire). There is no such lewdness in Vermeer's painting of a kitchen maid. She
is taking the business of carefully pouring the thick, curdling milk into a
two-handled earthenware bowl very seriously. The maid's eyes are lowered in
concentration, and this is a sign of humility and modest introspection. The bare
room ties in well with the simplicity of the maid's way of life and actions. The
greyish-yellow wall, with its conspicuous nails (and holes left by ones that
have been removed) and cracks - silent testimony of long use - was originally,
covered by a map, as has been shown by x-ray examinations of the painting. This
would of course have been a symbol of luxury. It is therefore important that
Vermeer should have later dispensed with this detail, as it developes the
picture of the maid going about her simple everyday duties into something that
is almost monumental, despite the small format. She is the embodiment of the
"spiritual maid", who was repeatedly extolled in religious treatises. Vermeer's
contemporaries would certainly have made religious associations with the milk,
which the Bible describes as a "sincere" food (1 Peter 2,2), and likens to "the
first principles of the oracles of God" (Hebrews 5, 12). This religious metaphor
still echoes in Schiller's phrase, the "milk of devout thought" (William Tell,
IV, 3). The bread in the basket, and the rolls on the table, are speckled with
shimmering points of light and are fascinating examples of Vermeer's wonderful
pointillist technique. They, too, have similar religious connotations, given
that Christ described himself as the "bread of life" (John 6,48); it is not
possible to miss this reference to the Eucharist.
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Vermeer
The Milkmaid (detail)
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Vermeer
The Milkmaid (detail)
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Vermeer
The Milkmaid (detail)
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Vermeer
The Milkmaid (detail)
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Books on household management required servants to make a great
effort to behave in a god-fearing manner. It was felt that such
views were the necessary basis, both for respect of their masters,
whom they had to obey, and for an industrious attitude to life.
Vermeer's painting, which is now in New York, of the
Woman
with a Water Jug, is a variation on this theme of
virtue, but this time on a higher social scale, that of a
middle-class housewife. This woman's eyes are also lowered modestly,
and she is evidently pondering over the leaded windows, a motif
which appears earlier in the Brunswick painting. It is not
reproduced in any detail in the New York painting, however. What is
presented, instead, is an emblematic personification of Temperantia, or temperance, which was considered a cardinal
virtue. Hans Burgkmair's woodcut of a woman pouring water from a jug
into a bowl is an example of the traditional way of representing
this virtue. And this is the very scene that Vermeer depicts. A
young woman is wearing a starched white headcloth and lace
trimmings, the transparency of which has been very carefully
observed by Vermeer. She is holding the handle of a shining,
brightly glistening, gold-coloured jug, which, like the matching
bowl, is reflecting the colours of nearby objects. A similar table
set was painted by the Master of Flemalle (Robert Campin) on the
right wing of the Werl altar (Madrid, Prado), as part of the
symbolism relating to St. Barbara. Like the golden censer and paten,
this combination refers to the Holy of Holies in the Jewish
Tabernacle. In contrast to this "sacred" object, Vermeer includes
the jewellery box of pearls and blue ribbons. This contrast once
again embodies conflict, both emotional and material: should this
woman be vain and give in to self-love, or should she practise
moderation?
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Vermeer
Woman with a Water Jug
c. 1664-65
This woman is torn between conflicting desires: should she give in
to
vanity and her wish for admiration (the box of pearls), or should
she
practise moderation (the water jug)?
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Vermeer
Woman with a Water Jug (detail)
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Vermeer
Woman with a Water Jug (detail)
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Vermeer
Woman with a Water Jug (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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Caspar
Netscher
Lacemaker
1664
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Like The Milkmaid, Vermeer's Lacemaker is also
completely absorbed in the concentration and effort required to
carry out her work. From the Middle Ages, textiles and needlework
had been seen as specifically feminine tasks. In his portrait of
Anna Codde (circa 1530, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum), Maerten van
Heemskerck emphasised spinning flax at a distaff as being a feminine
task typical of her. In the Book of Proverbs, the perfect wife is
described as being "far above rubies" (31, 11 ft.), and as always
being busy with wool and with flax, setting her hands to the distaff
and the spindle, and making her own quilts and linen sheets. This
section of the Old Testament was repeatedly referred to in books on
marriage written in and before the 17th century. Vermeer painted
this scene in close proximity to his subject. There is one
particular feature that suggests that an unfocussed camera obscura
was used as an aid in the painting. It is the blurred edges of the
colours, in particular of the yellowish-white and red threads, which
seem to be streaming from the dark blue lace pillow with yellow
stripes and curling up on the table rug.
Vermeer's use of pointillism has an abstract effect on the image,
blurring the other objects used by the woman, such as the lace
pillow, the needles around which she threads the bobbins, and the
pattern. This lacemaking equipment is very conveniently arranged on
the wooden stand, quite a contrast to the bare room in which Caspar
Netscher's Lacemaker (1664, London, Wallace
Collection) is working, using just a lace pillow.
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Vermeer
The Lacemaker
c. 1669-70
Her eyes lowered in humility, the lacemaker is concentrating,
nimble-fingered, on her task. Since the late Middle Ages, needlework
had come to be considered an occupation suited to women.
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Vermeer
The Lacemaker (detail)
This small picture is meant to be viewed from close up. A young girl
of Delft is seated at a small, sloping table at work on a piece of
lace. She has all she needs within reach, including a book. There is
no need for a lamp as there is enough daylight. The work is intended
primarily as a portrait or perhaps as a cabinet picture, to grace
the wall of a middle-class house in Delft. It is ideally suited to
this purpose, its eloquent calm ensuring that the owners would never
tire of looking at it. The painter must have known that his work
would appear to its greatest advantage in such a setting. At an easy
distance from Amsterdam, the gateway to the world and the port
through which beautiful objects were imported from far and wide.
Delft was an important centre for the production of pottery and its
inhabitants enjoyed prosperous, untroubled lives. Vermeer depicted
mainly women from various walks of life, rarely formally posed but
full of dignity and usually occupied in daily activities. Relatively
few of his meticulously considered works have survived until today.
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 Vermeer
The Lacemaker (detail)
The girl's hands manipulate the thread, which is stretched between the
bobbins held in her left hand and the pins marking out the lace design on
the little cushion. Other bobbins, not in use at this moment, hang down to
one side of the cushion. The work is modest: the girl is young and has only
undertaken a relatively simple design. Her fingers work deftly and
precisely, and Vermeer is masterful in his representation of the proportions
and the position of the hands and fingers.
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