Christ in the House of
Martha and Mary

Christ in the House of Mary and Martha is thought to be the earliest known painting by Vermeer. The strongest argument for its early date is the difference in painting techniques between this work and his later ones. In no other painting does he focus so exclusively of the figures in the central core of the composition. Vermeer in his mature works was very conscious of the relationship of his figures to the environment, a concern not evident in this work.

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

c. 1655
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. Vermeer: The Complete Works, New York, 1997)

c. 1654-1655
Walter Liedtke Vermeer: The Complete Paintings, New York, 2008)

The support is a fine, plain-weave linen with a thread count of 12 x 17 per cm ². A vertical seam is in line with Christ's elbow. The canvas has been paste-lined and the original tacking edges have been removed. The double ground consists of a layer of white chalk bound with a protein medium followed by a red earth layer. In the background and in the shadowed flesh tones of Christ and Martha the red ground is only partially covered by very thin brown glazes. What appears to have been a glaze on Christ's violet tunic is preserved only in the texture of the brushwork. The highlights on all the drapery are painted with impasto: on Christ's blue robe, which was painted with indigo, smalt, and lead-white, the brushstrokes are about 1 cm. wide and indicate a square-tipped brush.

Numerous wet-in-wet touches include the details of Martha's waistband, the modeling of the headclothes; and the decoration on the carpet. The speed of execution and the fluidity of the paint is also signified by the splashy, broken edges of many of the forms; such as the upper edges of the table and Mary's profile.

There are several alterations: Christ's profile and ear; the fingers of His left hand; and the edge of Martha's right sleeve. The edge of some of the forms encroach significantly on adjacent areas such as the upper edge of Christ's robe overlapping His tunic. Mary's left hand appears to have been painted over Christ's blue robe.

*Johannes Vermeer(exh. cat., National Gallery of Art and Royal Cabinet of Paintings Mauritshuis - Washington and The Hague, 1995, edited by Arthur Wheelock)

literature

exhibitions

Mary and Martha are the most familiar set of sisters in the Bible. Both Luke and John describe them as friends of Jesus. Luke's story, though only four verses long, has been a cause of interpretation and debate for centuries.

Preaching to the people, Jesus Christ arrived in Bethany. This town is situated not far from Jerusalem beyond the Mount of Olives where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:38-42).

This subject was more popular among Flemish artists than Dutch, possibly owing to the religious connotations of the story which formed the basis of several representations from the mid-16th century onwards. In the religious context of the time, the scene illustrated one of the fundamental differences opposing Catholics and Protestants. The latter sought salvation in action while the former placed greater value on the contemplative life.

Whereas harsh environment conditions made many European countries practically inaccessible, the level planes of the Netherlands were crossed by a network of canals that had been dug to regulate the flow of water. They furnished an extraordinarily practical means of transportation, faster than any way on land. Trade, which had been based mainly on spices, textiles, and tulip bulbs, gradually extended to paintings. The fact that paintings were small and easy to handle made it easier to place them on the market.

These conditions, coupled with a widespread wealth, favored the explosion of the Dutch art market. Over a breathtakingly short period, the Netherlands produced artists of the stature of Rembrandt, Vermeer, Frans Hals, Jan Steen, Jacob van Ruisdael, and Pieter de Hooch. These artists belonged to the same guilds; they worked in the same commercial marketplace. They knew one another's work, if only from prints. They competed, taught each other, collected each other's work, and on occasion collaborated.

Vermeer's art draws much from this liquid scene. He borrowed from every source available: from the great masters of the legendary Italian Renaissance to his fellow painters who lived a few steps away from his door.

In fact, critics believe that a good part of Vermeer's oeuvre is based on themes and compositions of preceding works of his colleagues. He is one of those rare artists who is capable of seeing great possibilities in the works of less talented artists and was uniquely capable of infusing new depth and life into well-trodden artistic motifs.

Exercitia spiritualia (Spiritual Exercises)
of Ignatius of Loyola 1548
First Edition by Antonio Bladio (Rome)

The motivation for painting this work is difficult to determine. Although rejected by modern Vermeer scholars, it was once believed that Vermeer was trained by Leonaert Bramer, a Catholic and close friend to the Vermeer family in Delft. Bramer was the most prestigious figure in Delft painting at the time and was known to have traveled to Italy. Bramer also interceded on behalf of the young painter in his betrothal to Catharina Bolnes, the daughter of a well-to-do Delft patrician, Maria Thins. He may have sealed the bargain by guaranteeing the young painter's future and a quick conversion to Catholicism, a rare event in 17th-century Netherlands.

It has been hypothesized that Vermeer's Christ in the House of Martha and Mary was result of his classical training combined with his newfound Catholic sentiments although it may have been commissioned by someone particularly interested in the motif. In any case, Vermeer's mother-in-law, Maria Thins, maintained close contacts to the Jesuits in Delft.

Martha and Mary represented two opposing personalities: the active and the contemplative. Christ's defense of the contemplative life suited Jesuit ideals and actually was contained within the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. Vermeer's treatment of this subject, which focuses on the message that Christ is transmitting, may reflect his sympathetic response to the Catholic Church in the mid-1650s.

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary
Erasmus Quellinus
c. 1645
Musée des Beaux Arts, Valenciennes

There existed numerous visual sources available to the young Vermeer for this composition. The most likely model was a work by the Fleming Erasmus Quellinus (Musée des Beaux Arts, Valenciennes).

In no other painting did Vermeer focus so exclusively on the figures as the central core of the composition. Within a few years, he became absorbed in a more complex pictorial problem, the relationship of the figure to the environment, a concern ignored in this work where the dark background serves essentially to isolate and emphasize the figural relationship rather than reveal something about their story or lives.

Some Vermeer writers place the Diana and her Companions immediately before his Christ in the House of Martha and Mary while other after. Unless the state of conservation of the Diana has suffered more than we know, its technical level is far inferior to the Christ making the Diana Vermeer's first work.

Although the painting's composition does not match with any known painting by the Utrecht artist Gerrit Terbrugghen, its supple controlled paint handling may have been the technical inspiration of the struggling young Vermeer.

Kitchen Scene with Christ in
the House of Martha and Mary
Diego Velásquez
60 x 103.5 cm
National Gallery, London

In northern Europe, but not only, the motif of Christ in the House of Martha and Mary has inspired many paintings which were in essence only barely veiled still-lives. The most illustrious southern European example is the version by Diego Velásquez (see left). Here, the Spanish master lavished great attention of the two bodegones figures in the foreground and on the extremely realistic depictions of kitchen utensils and food probably painted from the artist's own living conditions. The religious scene is relegated to a secondary role taking place in what appears to be a see-through window of a rustic kitchen which curiously can almost be mistaken for a framed picture.

Closer to home, Pieter De Bloot's version (see Related Images no. 4 below) shows a sprawling kitchen scene which undoubtedly reflected the Dutch preoccupation with household chores and domestic virtue rather than an explicit commitment to spiritual matters.

The Four Elements: Fire (detail)
Joachim Beuckelaer
1570
157.5 x 215.5 cm
National Gallery, London

One of the most extraordinary renditions of the Christ in the house of Martha and Mary theme is Joachim Beuckelaer's Fire, one work of a set of four pictures which take as their theme the four elements of "Earth," "Water," "Air" and "Fire." In each, seductive representations of market produce for sale or for cooking are combined with Biblical episodes. In Fire, modern viewers are easily puzzled by the importance given to the worldly kitchen scene in respects to the tiny Biblical scene relegated to the furthest point of the painting's complex spatial construction (see detail left) so much that it may even be overlooked by the inattentive viewer.

However it should be remembered that in the religious context of the time, this scene illustrated one of the fundamental differences opposing Catholics and Protestants. The latter sought salvation in action whilst the former placed greater value on the contemplative life. Here Beuckelaer consigns the teaching of the divine word to the back of the painting, devoting the entire foreground to active life.

Bathsheba
Jacob van Loo
c.1650
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre, Paris

Although the Bible had been one of the most important sources of inspirations for European painters, by the mid-17th century, still life, portraiture, landscape and interiors had largely replaced traditional religious and historical subjects in the Netherlands. Just the same, contemporary art theorists still defended the intellectual and moral superiority of history painting (see example left) and many of the most ambitious painters, like Vermeer, devoted their energies to its mastery.

History painting offered uplifting or cautionary narratives that were intended to encourage contemplation of the meaning of life. It also satisfied a desire for religious imagery that remained strong, even after most traditional religious pictures had been removed from Calvinist churches in the wave of iconoclasts destroying great part of the early Dutch pictorial heritage.

For unknown reasons Vermeer soon abandoned history painting and unconditionally embraced the "modern" mode of painting practiced by celebrated artists like Gerard ter Borch, Gerrit Dou and Frans van Mieris. Vermeer would only again take up the religious motif in his late Allegory of Faith, a full-fledged religious work set in a Dutch 17th-century interior, an awkward combination of the two modes of painting.

From the onset of his career Vermeer was keenly aware of the expressive role of composition in his art. In order to understand how effectively he employed composition in the present work, it is necessary to be familiar with the religious implications of the Christ in the house of Martha and Mary theme in 17th-century Netherlands.

Commentators of this famous Biblical story had long recognized the contrast between the active life of Martha (who complains to Christ about her sister's lack of help in domestic chores) and Mary's contemplative nature (who attends passively the words of Christ neglecting Martha's call for help). The sisters had been traditionally identified as symbols of opposing paths of salvation. Martha represented the necessities of performing good works while Mary shuns earthly concerns and puts all her faith in the message of eternal life promised by Christ. This story illustrates one of the central debates between the Protestant and Catholic religious cults.

For Protestant reformers the story supported the fact that salvation can be obtained by the belief in forgiveness of sin by a merciful God earned by Christ's Crucifixion. Roman Catholics, on the other hand, emphasize not only salvation by faith in God but by proper action. For the latter, salvation can be earned through acts of humility and good works. Although Christ did define Mary's contemplative role as the "better half," Catholics point out that Mary's faith would be incomplete without an active life.

By stressing given elements of the composition or playing down others and organizing the positions of each, an artist is able to manipulate the meaning of the parable in favor of one or the other point of view. It has been frequently remarked how Vermeer balances the two figures of Martha and Mary in the composition giving equal compositional weight to each. Both touch Christ on the picture plane and all the figures are invisibly bound in an imaginary circle further enhancing their unity. It would appear that Vermeer was aware of the conflict between the Protestant and Catholic positions and attempted a synthesis in his painting through a reconciliatory balance.

Christ in the House of Mary and Martha
Jacopo Tintoretto
c. 1580
200 x 132 cm
Alte Pinakothek, München

Even in his first explorative works, Vermeer clearly demonstrated his ability to gather visual, technical and intellectual inspiration from a variety of sources and weave them together with unique creative originality. This work draws upon resources diverse as Italian and Netherlandish painting.

Although hidden to the untrained eye, the three figures in Vermeer's painting are bound in a so-called circular composition (see Special Topic above) unifying theme and composition. Circular compositions were frequently employed to unite complex figure groupings and impede the viewer's eye from straying aimlessly around the picture. Curiously, Tintoretto's own Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, made about 70 years earlier than Vermeer's version, presents one of the most noticeable circular compositions in European art.

Although the circular composition may be an effective way of controlling the viewer's attention, if it is too influential, the observer feels subliminally entrapped. As a remedy artists often included a sort of escape route such as the background scenes in Tintoretto's painting. Vermeer provided a similar relief in the half-opened doorway to the dark recess of the upper left-hand corner of the composition. Some of the most powerful works of Western art have circular compositions.

St Sebastian Tended by Irene and her Maid
Hendrick Terbrugghen
1625
149 x 119.4 cm
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio

In his formative years, Vermeer surveyed a wider range of artistic possibilities and combined them together with his innate sense of measure and moral seriousness.

Among the paintings related to the composition of the Martha and Mary is the Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene and her Maid by Hendrick Terbrugghen with its tight figural relationship. This compositional comparison may certainly be made but Vermeer may have been attracted to other aspects of Terbrugghen's art as well, his control of light and masterful painting technique. Although the brushwork of the legendary Frans Hals and Rembrandt more readily engage the eye, Terbrugghen's manipulation of paint with brush is among the powerful in European easel painting and was well appreciated in his time. When visiting Amsterdam, the great Peter Paul Rubens, Europe's foremost painter, visited Terbrugghen's studio while overlooking even that of the young Rembrandt.

In Terbrugghen's Saint Sebastian, form is masterfully conjured up by broad, sweeping yet sober application of juicy paint. Only this level of technical mastery can make painting seem easy. When painting the head and headgear of the kneeling Mary, the receptive young Vermeer may have been impressed by the compactness of the illuminated head of the central figure in Terbrugghen's work. He may have understood that only broad, robust brushwork could hold together such a large-scale composition while conferring the gravity and stillness he strove for.

Dress has always played an important part in history painting and portraiture. One of the cardinal principles of traditional history painting, an example being the present work by Vermeer, is that contemporary dress must be avoided at all costs. In part because it was through dress that most historical figures could be recognized and in part because contemporary fashion was held to be too frivolous. Since fashions were subject to change they were unsuitable for expressing the universal principles worthy of what art theorists considered the uppermost tier of painting.

However, there was no precise agreement as to what dress constituted the most appropriate for history painting. Art theorists provided general prescriptions for the proper clothes (and even colors) for the most important protagonists. Kings for example, of any time or age, should wear a medieval crown and ermine cloak and youth should wear bright colored clothing. However, as much as art theorists attempted to guide the artist's hand and urged them to consult texts of the classics, each painter solved the problem of visualizing an unknown past in a different way. In reality, ancient texts provided scant details that would be of practical help and the Bible, one of the principle sources of history painting motifs, is completely silent in regards.

But in general, simple, loose costumes with billowing drapery not pin-pointable to a particular time or place were favored because they offer latitude for painterly interpretation and per se evoked a sense of timelessness. Although a painter might add one or more accessories from his own collection, most worked from their imagination or old master prints. In any case, a certain flowing naturalness was one of the requisite qualities of any depiction of drapery.

Vermeer followed classical dress traditions in the Christ in the House of Martha and Mary. Certainly, the Bible offered him no indication of the dress of the three protagonists. The costume of the standing Martha seems to hint at contemporary dress while the other two figures are clothed in the most conventional manner of history painting. Mary's clothes have a wonderful sober substance created by amazingly deft brushwork which recalls the great technique of Henrick Terbrugghen. The clothes of Christ appear somewhat less substantial with less attention to the logical tuck and fold of the fabrics.

Johann Sebastian Bach
Recitativo, Siehe, ich stehe vor der Tür (Behold, I stand at the door) (1.48 MB)
from cantata BWV 61 Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland
http://www.amazon.de/Kantaten-BWV-140-61-36/dp/B0000035PF/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1258281314&sr=1-22

Siehe, ich stehe vor der Tür und klopfe an.
So jemand meine Stimme hören wird und
die Tür auftun, zu dem werde ich eingehen
und das Abendmahl mit ihm halten
und er mit mir.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears My voice and
opens the door, I will come in to him
and will dine with him,
and he with Me.

(Revelation 3,20; version American Standard Bible 1993)

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary
Erasmus Quellinus
c. 1645
Musée des Beaux Arts, Valenciennes