DIANA AND HER COMPANIONS

(Diana en haar Nimfen)

c. 1653-1656
oil on canvas
38 3/4 x 41 3/8 in. (98.5 x 105 cm.)
Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen Mauritshuis Mauritshuis,
The Hague

left-click once to fix the slide-in information box - left-click again to retire it

Young Woman Seated at a Virginal, Johannes Vermeer

The Italianate subject and style of "Diana," with its size and comparatively conventional facture, have inspired general agreement that this is a very early picture, perhaps the first by the painter that we have. In the case of Vermeer such indications are not always reliable.

Lawrence Gowing, Vermeer, 1952

this signature is no longer visible after overzealous restorations, but was still reproduced in the 1859 catalogue of the Mauritshuis

c. 1655-1656
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. Vermeer: The Complete Works, New York, 1997)

c. 1653-1654
Walter Liedtke Vermeer: The Complete Paintings, New York, 2008)

The support is a plain-weave linen with a thread count of 14.3 x 10 per cm². The tacking edges have been largely removed. Cusping is present on three sides, but not on the edge, which has been cut down. The support has a glue/ paste lining. An off-white ground, which includes chalk, lead white, umber, and a little charcoal black, extends from the edges of the original canvas on all sides. Over the whole painting, except possibly in the sky, extends a thin, transparent reddish brown layer, which is employed in most half-tones and shadows.

The composition was first outlined with dark brown brushwork, some of which is visible as pentimenti in the skirt and foot of the woman washing Diana's foot. All the shadows were first blocked in with a dark paint that is especially evident in the flesh tones of Diana and her seated companions. Smalt is present in all the pale flesh tones, mixtures containing white, and the foliage. Vermeer used the handle of the brush to scratch hairs on the dog's ear.

The paint surface is abraded. vertical lines of paint loss are evident to the left of center. Weave emphasis and squashed cupping has resulted from the lining process.

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

literature

  • [Dirksen, The Hague, before 1866; sold to Goldsmid];
  • Neville Davison Goldsmid, The Hague (1866-75);
  • his widow, Eliza Garey, The Hague and Paris (1875-76;
  • Goldsmid-sale, Paris, 4 May 1876, no. 68 (purchased by Victor de Stuers on behalf of The Netherlands, for fl. 10,000 as by Nicolaes Maes);
  • 1876 to Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen Mauritshuis, The Hague (inv. 406).

exhibitions

SPECIAL TOPICS ?

Vermeer began his career as a history painter and not as a painter of genre interiors for which he is renowned today. His first known works were Christ in the House of Martha and Mary taken from a Biblical narrative and Diana and her Companions drawn from Greek mythology. Two other history paintings, Jupiter, Venus and Mercury and Visit to the Tomb have not survived.

Although it is not known where or with whom Vermeer studied, it is certain that he received his training from a master versed in history painting. There are no signs that he completed his apprenticeship in his native Delft: instead he probably studied in Amsterdam or nearby Utrecht. The accomplished, but elderly Abraham Bloemaert (1566-1651) is frequently cited as a possible candidate.

The princely court of The Hague, which distances a little more than an hour walk from Delft, was a magnet for all ambitious Dutch history and portrait painters. A few of them, such as Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, had attained enormous financial success with works to suit a conservative, aristocratic vision of the world. Joachim von Sandrart wrote that he painted over 10,000 portaits.

A few years after he had terminated his apprenticeship, Vermeer unexpectedly changed artistic direction.

Diana Resting after the Hunt
with Shepherdesses and Greyhounds,

Gerrit van Honthorst
97 x 160 cm
Private collection

Although scholars have pondered the choice of such an apparently unusual subject, the 21 year old Vermeer may have wished to cater to the classical tastes of the nearby court at The Hague where the figure of Diana was in vogue. The Diana theme had been commissioned by such successful Dutch artists as Gerrit van Honthorst, Jacob van Campen and the Delft artist Christiaen Van Couwenbergh.

However, the solutions they devised were drastically different from those elaborated during the same period in Italy and France, or even in neighboring Flanders. The historical verisimilitude of settings, costumes and facial expressions, all rigidly codified in the Italian and French academies, were approached much less dogmatically in the Netherlands.

Why Vermeer abandoned the path of history painting soon after is unknown. Perhaps he came to realize that although he was a talented painter of biblical and mythological scenes, his true genius lay in his ability to convey a comparable sense of dignity and purpose in images drawn from daily life. More banally, it cannot be ruled out that the support he expected as a history painter did not materialize or that his patron-to-be Pieter van Ruijven had guided the budding artist towards a more "modern" approach.

Portrait of Karel van Mander from his book
Schilder-boeck (Painter book), written in
Mannerist Dutch and published in Haarlem
in 1604 by Passchier van Wesbusch.

Vermeer must have been keenly aware of painting's debated hierarchical position amongst the arts. In classical times painting had been equated with poetry, most famously in the often-quoted words of Horace from his Ars Poetica (18 BC) ut pictura poesis (as is painting, so is poetry).

In his influential Schilderboek, Karel van Mander, known as "the Dutch Vasari," first for his writings and second for his accomplishments as a painter, urged artists to display exemplary behavior so as to elevate the social status of their profession. He believed that since painting required training and imagination it should be considered on par with literature or philosophy then considered the highest expressions of the human spirit. He encouraged painters not waste time, not get drunk or fight, not draw attention by living an immoral life and attempt to frequent princes and learned people. However, Van Mander never believed that artists should blindly follow nature: he thought they should perfect it, and not merely represent what they saw, no matter how accurately and skillfully rendered.

When Vermeer painted his Diana he may have had in mind Van Mander's advice to show Italians how wrong they were wrong in their belief that Noorthern painters could not paint human figures. In any case, the Diana reveals that Vermeer was an ambitious painter who would not be content to humbly exercise his craft as the great part of Dutch painters did.

Ovid as imagined in the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493

The subject of Vermeer's only surviving mythological scene is drawn from Ovid's Metamorphoses (book III, 138-252) in which Diana, the goddess of the hunt and an emblem of chastity, reposes at the end of the day with her nymphs. Vermeer chose to portray an unusual moment before the climax and the story when Actaeon, a young prince out hunting, inadvertently discovers the nude Diana and her companions. Diana attempts to avoid his stares by shielding her nakedness with the bodies of her attendant nymphs. She then splashes water at the head of Actaeon and hurls an imprecation at him. Incensed at Actaeon's lustful glances the goddess instantly turns the hunter into a stag. The helpless Actaeon fails to be recognized by his own hounds and is torn to pieces.

Ovid's Metamorphoses was a source of motifs for painters who delighted in portraying the exotic and violent stories from the Renaissance on. However, by the mid-17th century Diana was represented only occasionally by Dutch artists.


Diana and Her Nymphs
Jacob van Loo
1654
100 x 136 cm
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

The Italianate subject and style of Vermeer's Diana, along with its imposing size and conventional facture, place this work among the very first efforts of the young artist. So atypical is the canvas that for many years it was attributed to Vermeer of Utrecht. Its signature had been altered to that of Nicholaes Maes but was later restored. Although the canvas is not well preserved and cannot be objectively judged, the anatomical rendering shows signs of uncertainty as might be expected by any young painter at grips with such a complicated and ambitious composition.

Most modern Vermeer experts have followed the German art historian Wilhelm von Bode who recognized the arrangement of the figures in a painting by Jacob van Loo, a classical painter from Amsterdam who had made inroads into the lucrative Hague court. In fact, it would seem that Vermeer was aware of more than one of Van Loo's versions of the subject. In particular, the background figures of Van Loo's 1648 Diana are strongly reminiscent in the poses, somber lighting and overall solemnity of Vermeer's composition. Vermeer may have drawn from other sources as well; in particular the Bathsheba by Rembrandt for the pose (inverted by Vermeer) of the seated Diana and her attendant as well as the moral weight of the picture. Since both sources are from artists working in Amsterdam, it has been suggested that Vermeer spent some time there to accrue his knowledge of painting from two of the most reputable artists of the time.

Some Vermeer writers place the Diana immediately before his Christ in the House of Martha and Mary while others after. Perhaps the more sophisticated technique of the Christ is enough to determine that the Diana is the first of surviving works by Vermeer.

Artemis the huntress, called "Diana of Versailles"
Roman copy of Greek statue
attributed to Leochares ca 325 BC.
Marble, Height: 2,01 m

Vermeer's Diana is a characteristic example of istoria, or history painting. History painting, which represents Biblical, mythological or historical subjects, usually on grand scale, originated in Italy and had become the dominant form of painting throughout Europe.

The goal of history painting was to instruct the mind and elevate the human spirit. History painters believed themselves to be participants of the Liberal Arts associated with philosophy and poetry and not merely artisans. Artists emphasized above all, harmony, proportion and balance in their compositions. They generally employed dense but smooth brushwork, positive coloring and the use of light to idealize and prefect form rather than reveal its temporary state. Non-realist technical virtuosity often predominated over sincere understanding of visual objectivity. Most history paintings were commissioned by patrons who furnished the artist with a subject derived from textual material. Thus, the task of the history painter was to represent to the best of his ability the cultural aspirations of the patron and not his own.

Dutch history painting drew its inspiration from many of the same writings and pictorial sources used by the venerable masters of the Italian Renaissance.

In any case, history painting did not constitute the highest percentage of artistic output in the Netherlands. By far the largest part came from genres that art writers classified as inferior: portraits, genre scenes, landscapes, and still lives. This was undoubtedly a consequence of the transformation of painting into a commodity.

A number of Dutch history painters prospered in Vermeer's time, including the great Rembrandt van Rijn. However, some of the most successful Dutch classicists like Gerrit van Honthorst, Jan de Bray and Cesar van Everdingen have been profoundly reconsidered in modern times.

Bathsheba at her Bath
Rembrandt van Rijn
1654
142 x 142 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

Since the origin of modern Vermeer studies, a few of the artist's early works have been linked to Rembrandt van Rijn although there is no direct documentary evidence that supports this link. In his celebrated essays of 1886, Théophile Thoré, who is credited for having rediscovered the Delft master, wrote that the Procuress was "absolutament rembrandtesque." Many modern Vermeer authorities have concurred. Arthur K. Wheelock wrote "Diana's somber mood and her pose, as well as that of her kneeling attendant, are so similar in content and feeling to Rembrandt's Bathsheba of 1634 that it seems highly probably that Vermeer knew this work firsthand."

The most probable source of Vermeer's knowledge of Rembrandt's art was through Carel Fabritius, Rembrandt's most talented student who had briefly stayed in Delft when Vermeer was beginning to paint. He may have seen some of the mythological or classical themes done by Fabritius which are steeped in the somberness and solemnity of Rembrandt's historical themes.

The present work displays Vermeer’s familiarity with one of the most successful pictorial tools for organizing complex images, the circular composition. A true circular composition does not make use of circular objects but those which, combined by the artist, create a circular structure.

Circular compositions were employed not only to manipulate the viewer's optical experience but to convey the idea of unity, balance, repose and wholeness, considered cardinal values of true painting. Like any device, the circular composition must not be overdone. It should be subliminally felt by the observer but not consciously noticed lest it dominate the reading of the motif. In the present Diana, the bodies and limbs of the figures form a graceful, gentle circle.

In classical painting, much of a painter's attention was given to keeping edges well guarded and stop a wayward eye from getting too near and escaping from the picture. Vermeer applied the circular composition to another early work, the Christ in the House of Martha and Mary.

Singing Couple
ascribed to Jan Vermeer van Utrecht
79 x 63.5 cm
Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf

In 1885, Victor de Stuers examined the painting's signature, which then read NMaes and realized that the letters NM were created from the remains of an underlying signature that included the letters IVM. He concluded that the painting was by Johannes Vermeer of Delft. Evidently, the original signature had been altered by someone who thought that the painting would sell better if it bore the name of the illustrious Nicloaes Maes.

De Stuers' supposition was confirmed by restorer Z. L.van den Berg a few years later. Ironically, in the 1895 catalogue raisonné of the Mauritshuis the painting was attributed to Jan Vermeer of Utrecht, a nondescript contemporary of Vermeer (see left).

The real Vermeer signature is now only dimly visible.

Early art historians believed that Vermeer, like other Dutch artists of the time, had spent some years training in Italy. It was later discovered that it was Johannes Vermeer of Utrecht, an obscure landscapist, documented in Rome in the mid-1650s and not his famous counterpart. Nonetheless, the knowledge of composition, broad execution and moral seriousness of his first canvases all show that he was keenly aware of the strengths of Italian painting. In particular, some historians believe his art is indebted, albeit indirectly, to the most debated Italian artist of the time, Caravaggio, for the strong chiaroscural lighting of his early pictures.

For young Dutch and Flemish artists, travel to Italy had become a rite of passage after the publication of Karel van Mander's Schilder-boeck in 1604. Often entailing difficult and dangerous journey, young artists could spend years getting to Italy, using their artistic talents to pay their way. Many never made it all the way to Italy, and some of those who arrived never attempted the trip back. The attraction of the antique and the High Renaissance was irresistible.

In the early 17th century, a group of Utrecht painters who had traveled to Rome fell under the spell of the work of Caravaggio and his followers. Once returned to Utrecht, the so-called Uthrecht Caravaggists introduced a dramatically new style of painting, one that stressed the contrasts between light and dark, the quality for which Rembrandt was later to become so celebrated.

Vertumnus and Pomona
Abraham Bloemaert
1620
98 x 125 cm
Private collection

Italian painting was also important to Utrecht painters who never crossed the Alps. One such man was Abraham Bloemaert, the father of the Utrecht School, in whose huge workshop many painters were trained. But because some of these artists traveled to Italy, returning to pass on their learning to their master, Bloemaert's varied oeuvre bears visible testimony to a succession of Italian influences. His fame extended so far that even the great Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens visited him in Utrecht.

Another painter with strong connections to Italy was the principle artist of Delft, Leonaert Bramer, a Catholic and close friend of the Vermeer family. Bramer is documented in Italy from 1614 to before 1628. Although Bramer is principally credited for a series of bizarre Biblical nocturnal scenes in a distinctly Italianate style, his range of pictorial styles may have been wider than recognized. He was an eclectic, if not great artist, working for tapestry firms, designing and painting murals and ceilings, some of which are illusionistic in style. He crafted real fresco painting, which is a rare feat north of the Alps. A tapestry with a design after Bramer shows a surprising merry company scene complete with repoussoir tapestry which cannot but recall Vermeer's Officer and Laughing Girl.

Henry Purcell
Rondeau from the Incidental Music for The Fairy Queen [512 KB]
Orchestra of the Accademia Monteverdiana. Denis Stevens. http://www.baroquecds.com/10Web.html