Vermeer
Allegory of Faith
(detail)
A symbol of man's
power of reason
The glass ball which hangs from the ceiling
was borrowed by Vermeer from Willem Heinsius' book of emblems; it was
described there as a symbol of man's power of reason. |
Allegory of Faith
There are two paintings of Vermeer's whose themes differ
fundamentally from those of his other, more realistic and everyday
pictures. Both have elements of allegory about them, and both set
out to realize abstract concepts. One of them portrays a
personification of Faith; the other shows one of the Muses fitted
out with her attributes, and she is the key to this painting's
meaning.
Herman van Swoll's Amsterdam catalogue, dated 22.4.1699, describes
the
Allegory of Faith as follows: "A woman seated, various
interpretations, represents the New Testament, by Vermeer of Delft,
is painted powerfully and full of warmth" (krachtig en
gloejent geschildert). The price was set at four hundred
guilders, which was a remarkably high figure evidently seeking to do
justice to the painter's learned theme, to the painting's size
(114.3 x 88.9cm), and certainly also, as the above comment reveals,
to the quality of the painting.
Vermeer studies have long expressed doubt as to whether it is at all
correct to identify the theme of this painting as New Testament. A.
J. Barnouw demonstrated convincingly in 1914 that Vermeer obviously
used Cesare Ripa's Iconologia
(translated into Dutch by Dirck Pers in 1644): most of the elements
employed by Vermeer in his painting appear here as attributes of the
allegory of faith, and do not therefore refer to the New Testament.
Imprecise or even incorrect identifications of the theme, such as
that in the sales catalogue, are more understandable if one takes
into account the fact that they were written by amateurs who no
longer knew the original intentions of the artist (Vermeer had died
twenty-four years before).
Cesare Ripa wrote: "Faith is represented by a sitting woman, who is
reverently holding a chalice in her right hand and is resting her
left hand on a book which is lying on a solid cornerstone; the
latter represents Christ. The world, a globe, lies at her feet. She
is dressed in sky blue, with a crimson outer garment. A crushed
serpent, and Death, whose arrows have been broken, lie behind the
cornerstone. Nearby is an apple, the source of Sin. Behind her, a
crown of thorns hangs on a nail..." Vermeer did not slavishly follow
all these instructions, though it is true that he did keep to most
of them. As a result, the red dress, the death motif, and the crown
of thorns are all missing, though the latter appears in the painting
on the wall, which portrays the crucifixion of Christ as the mystery
of faith.
Vermeer probably borrowed the glass ball, which hangs down from the
wooden beamed ceiling, from Willem Heinsius' book of emblems (Emblemata
Sacra de Fide, Spe, Charitate. Antwerp, 1636), where it was
described as a symbol of man's power of reason. This object was
originally of prime importance in the art of prophecy, in particular
of crystallomancy, divination by means of a crystal ball.
Vermeer moved his scene to the interior of a middle-class home. It
is probable that it was one of the larger rooms in the house of his
mother-in-law, Maria Thins, whom he and his family lived with; her
house provides the setting for many of his genre paintings. The
combination of the abstract, bloodless theme of this painting and
its everyday "realism" has appeared to many writers on Vermeer to be
quite grotesque. Particular points that have given rise to negative
judgements are the way Fides is pathetically clutching at her heart,
looking skywards (which today seems rather bigoted), and sitting in
a complicated posture with her right foot placed on the globe.
Arthur Wheelock Jr. said as recently as 1988, "As a work of art it
is a failure", and John Nash agrees with this when he says, "It is
an odd, unconvincing work".28 On the other hand, it must be
emphasized that Vermeer's contemporaries judged the painting
altogether more positively, as is proved by the high set price.
Where the setting is concerned, it should be remembered that this
painting is quite in keeping with the tradition of Old Dutch
painting (van Dyck and his successors); the application of religious
motifs to everyday situations was typical of their work. The purpose
of this was to bring the faithful closer to Biblical matters, and to
make them experience such as something that closely affected their
own lives.
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Vermeer's Allegory of Faith is generally considered
to have a Catholic tenor. It has been assumed that the painting was
commissioned by the padres of the Delft Jesuit mission, as its
symbolism is also related to Jesuit iconography. But there is no
firm proof to support this theory.
It is interesting that Vermeer used a globe produced by Hondius in
1618, and it is no accident that its cartouche is turned towards us.
Its inscription praises Prince Maurits of Nassau-Orange (1567-1625),
who at that time was the Dutch governor. Vermeer was undoubtedly
making a political statement by doing this, in the sense that he was
demonstrating his allegiance to the House of Orange. Many Delft
artists (such as Bramer, Couwenbergh and Houckgeest) shared this
attitude, and many of them worked for the Hague court. It is also
surely correct to identify the heraldic symbols which adorn the
tapestry curtain on the left (a feature Vermeer always used as a
motif of revelation) as belonging to the family of this governor. On
the one hand there is the orange, on the other a Burgundian lily
(top). As descendants of the House of Chalon, members of the House
of Orange were titular governors of the Franche-Comte of
Burgundy, whose coats of arms included the Fleur de Us.
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