The Allegory of Faith

Perhaps no other tapestry in Vermeer's oeuvre has been painted with such attention as this one. Such pulled-back curtain repoussoir motifs were typically used to set a dramatic entrance for the painting and enhance the importance of the scene which unfolds. In reality, tapestries were hung in many Catholic places of worship which indirectly supports the theory that this painting represents a "hidden"Catholic church (schuilkerk.)

This tapestry resembles examples of the Oudenaarde style made in Belgium in the second half of the 16th century. All of the Oudenaarde tapestries were made by hand with sometimes up to 5 weavers sitting next to each other on a horizontal loom (as opposed to the French vertical loom). During the work, only a part of the tapestry was visible to the weavers who based their weaving on a carton copy of the design. Only when the tapestry was finished, the result could be admired in its fullness.

It took a long time to weave a complete tapestry. An average weaver only produced a piece of tapestry as big as a grown man's hand a day. In the beginning, only a limited number of colors were used, mainly shades of green - hence the typical name "Verdures", (French for "greenery").

In the upper part of the carpet can be made out a gentleman with a hat who leads an animal that has alternately been described as a horse or a camel. Present too are the telltale signs of the camera obscura image, perfectly round highlights of light-toned paint called the pointillès scattered along the surface to evoke the rough weave of the tapestry.

J. C. Jegher
after Erasmus Quellinus
Capit Quod Non Capit
from Willem Hesius,
Emblemata sacra de fide, spe, charitate
Antwerp, 1636
National Gallery of Art,
Washington

The meaning of the glass orb, which is one of the most fascinating passages in the painting, has been particularly perplexing to scholars. Eddy De Jongh posits that it accentuates the painting's Jesuit content because Vermeer seems to have drawn inspiration from an emblem book by the Jesuit author Willem Hesius which represents a winged boy holding a sphere that reflects the overhead sun and a crucifix nearby. The accompanying poem compares the sphere's capacity to reflect the vastness of the universe with man's ability to believe in God.

Observed attentively, the globe reveals that Vermeer painted the play of light on the partially shuttered windows and on the floor of his own studio.

Perhaps in no other painting of Vermeer do we find the opulence and torment of the European Baroque conscience as much as in this painting even though Vermeer has done his best to adapt his geometrical measured painting style to the passion of the Catholic Faith which is the evident subject of this work. The overall result rarely satisfies the taste of modern observers but may have been differently perceived by the artist's contemporaries.

The tortured, calligraphically painted veins of the white marble floors are truly astounding if we compare them to those of his interiors of a few years earlier.

Merry Company at a Table
Hendrick van der Burch
55 x 69 cm
Private collection

Such gilt tooled-leather panels served as luxury wall covering to mitigate the humid white-washed Dutch walls of the well-to-do burgers. They can be seen in a great number of Dutch interior paintings of the time some showing the walls entirely covered (see left). The result produces a fascinating effect that one rarely associates with the typical austerity of Dutch interiors. In Vermeer's death inventory of movable goods, 7 ells (yards) of gilded-leather are listed. They can also be seen behind the maid and mistress in the earlier Love Letter.

One has the impression that the scene of Vermeer's painting, including oddly only one piece of leather covering, is somewhat improvised. Some scholars in fact, believe that Vermeer represented a makeshift, clandestine Catholic church, ready to celebrate the Holy Mass. (see Special Topics entry below).

The serpent, symbol of Satan, hell and death, spits blood. It is crushed by a slab, which stands for the stone on which Christ ordered Peter, alias Simon, to erect His Church and found the papacy.

Christ on the Cross
Jacob Jordaens
c. early 1620s
Private collection, Antwerp

The painting on the back wall is a simplified version of the Crucifixion by Jacob Jordaens, a version of which survives in Antwerp. Vermeer has omitted both the man on the ladder and Mary Magdalen at the feet of Christ. His mother-in-law Maria Thins may have owned the Jordaens, or a copy of it, since the 1676 inventory includes a "large painting representing Christ on the Cross."

On the altar-like table of Allegory of Faith lie a chalice and an open Bible. There is also a crucifix, quite possibly the "ebony wood crucifix" listed in the inventory drawn up after Vermeer's death.

According to the art historian Valerie Hedquist, the table becomes an altar that conforms in many respects to contemporary Roman Catholic accounts regarding the altar and its liturgical articles. Thus, Vermeer may have wished to represent contemporary Roman Catholic Church.

The detail of the upper part of the chalice (see detail left) shows how the artist attempts to synthesize texture with a series of staccato, dots and dashes which are intended to evoke the reflections of its elaborate relief design.

Although this work is hardly a favorite among Vermeer enthusiasts, the Allegory of Faith reserves a number of surprises for the careful observer from both an iconographic and technical point of view. This, like other late works by Vermeer, is characterized by an increasing tendency to simplify and abstract form coupled with a lively, yet controlled brushwork alien to his perfectly balanced images of the 1660s. Description succumbs to pattern.

Mary Magdalen Turning from the World to Christ
Jan van Bijlert
c. 1625-1630
Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina

Contemporary illustrated mass books, Jesuit writings, and primary sources regarding the Roman Catholic mission to the Netherlands suggest that Vermeer depicted a genre scene that served as a domestic church setting where the Eucharistic miracle of transubstantiation is celebrated.

This terrestrial globe is identical to the one depicted in Vermeer's Geographer fabricated in 1618 by Jacob Hondius. In the present painting, the allegorical figure of Faith rests her foot on the continent of Asia. According to many scholars, Vermeer seems to have followed to the letter Cesare Ripa's description of Faith who "has the world under her feet" by including the terrestrial globe.

In a meticulous in-depth study of Catholic backdrop of the Allegory of Faith, Valerie Hedquist provides convincing pictorial and iconographic evidence which supports the identification of the richly attired woman in Vermeer's painting more specifically as the penitent saint Mary Magdalen, representing the figure of faith. She points out that Vermeer may have had in mind a penitent Magdalen (see left) by Jan van Bijlert.

Details from both artists' works appear in an emblem from the 1646 Het masker vand wereldt afgetrocken, by Jesuit priest Adriaen Poirters. In the twelfth print of the book, a worldly woman in the foreground admires her own reflection in a mirror, while in the background a figure, identified as Mary Magdalen, gazes at an image of Christ crowned with thorns. In this depiction, Mary Magdalen holds a crucifix in her left hand and rests her foot on a terrestrial globe. The globe, the crucifix and the crown of thorns, associated with Mary Magdalen's emblem reappear in Vermeer's painting.

Het Masker was considered an emblem masterpiece when it was first published in 1646. Considering its numerous editions and Vermeer's close ties with the Jesuit community in Delft, he would have been easily familiar with it.

Thus, Vermeer's Magdalen stands between the celestial globe suspended by the blue ribbon over her head (symbolizing the heavens) and the terrestrial globe (symbolizing the earth) under her feet.

The Repentant Magdalen
Charles le Brun
1655
52 x 171 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

Modern critics have always drawn attention to the overtly rhetorical gesture and modest technique reserved for the figure that represents Catholic Faith. However, to understand Vermeer's figure as it was conceived, we must examine another part of Vermeer's composition: the Crucifixion by Jacob Jordaens which hangs prominently in the background.

According to art historian Valerie Hedquist, "Vermeer altered Jordaens' original composition in two significant ways. Firstly, he eliminated a figure on a ladder in the background of Jordaens' work, and, secondly, he removed or obscured the figure of Mary Magdalen mourning at the bottom of the cross between Christ and St John in Jordaens' composition. Vermeer's figure of faith assumes the position of the seated Mary Magdalen in the background painting and comes to life as the penitent saint within Vermeer's domestic church interior."

Italian and French art provided scores of appropriate images from which Vermeer could have drawn from. Although he may not have seen the works themselves, painted copies and engraved prints circulated throughout Europe. Many painters collected engravings as a sort of cook book for anatomy and gestures for their own paintings of religious subject matter.

Although the composition of the Allegory of Faith is clearly based on Vermeer's celebrated Art of Painting (see left), it lacks, at least to the modern eye, both expressive and pictorial conviction. The blue cushion and chair are both props that can be seen in other works by Vermeer but their illumination does not seem to be coherent with the rest of the painting. Perhaps they were introduced to cover the excessive number of black and white marble tiles.

Although the composition of Allegory of Faith is clearly based on Vermeer's celebrated Art of Painting (see left), it lacks both expressive and pictorial conviction. The blue cushion and chair are both props that can be seen in other works by Vermeer but their illumination does not seem to be coherent with the rest of the painting. They seem to have been introduced to cover the excessive number of black and white marble tiles which draw the observer's eye to a blank, inconsequential area of the painting.

In the setting of an improvised private Catholic church made to celebrate the Holy Mass, a crucifix could not be absent. In addition to the crucifix, Vermeer added a large open book with gold clasps that resembles contemporary missals which provided the priest the complete rite of the mass. Other than the re-enactment of the Passion on the altar, Vermeer referred to Christ's Passion by placing a true crown of thorns on the opened missal.

The detail of the missal's rendering (see above) testifies how far Vermeer had moved from direct observation towards stylization in his late pictures.

Such an elaborate carpet would not have been normally placed on a floor in a Dutch house. The accumulation of ecclesiastic objects in the make-shift setting of the scene points to an impromptu Catholic church set up in a private house ready to celebrate the Holy Mass.

Contemporary accounts regarding proper liturgical articles for such Masses indicate that the altar should be placed on an elevated platform and it should be carpeted just like it is in Vermeer's Allegory of Faith. Hanging tapestries were also suggested. The cushion on the standing chair may have served as a kneeling cushion intended for some parishioners although there are cushions on other chairs in Vermeer's interiors.