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
Vermeer opted to ignore the objects usually associated with Diana except for a discreet crescent moon in her hair and her hunting dog. Vermeer's dog, however, is scarcely comparable to the dashing hounds usually related with her and most probably was meant to assume the more mundane connotation of faithfulness. This would connect it to the right-hand background figure identified as Callisto who in Ovid's recount of the story betrays the virgin Diana by attempting to hide her own pregnancy and avoid being cast out from Diana's company.
Vermeer once again included a dog in the Maid Asleep, most likely again as a symbol of fidelity, which was later painted out by the artist himself.
A simple detail such as this lone thistle illustrates just how difficult it is for art experts to interpret symbolic content of a 17th-century painting. The thistle is an ancient Celtic symbol of nobility of character as well as of birth. In Christianity it represents the suffering of Christ.
Walter Liedtke suggests the prickly thistle symbolizes self-denial and the hard but noble path of life citing a detail of Frans Hals' famous Married Couple in the Garden in which an exceptional large thistle appears. In support, the title print of Jacob Cats' Houwelyck (Marriage) of 1652, "The couple in the engraving accompanied by faithful hounds, have taken the narrow and prickly path once chosen by Hercules at the Crossroads of Virtue and Vice."
On the other hand, for John Michael Montias, the prickly thistle plant traditionally symbolizes the male element, as in same Hals marriage portrait, thus alluding in Vermeer's work to the impending presence of Actaeon, the protagonist of the scene. "The idea of hinting at the nearby presence of a protagonist will often recur in Vermeer's mature art. In this particular case, the formal absence of Actaeon from the scene contributes to the mysterious aura of the painting, in contrast to the earlier tradition of representing Actaeon spying on the goddess and her nymphs or happening upon them."
Differently, Arthur Wheelock points out that the thistle is a traditional symbol of earthly sorrow and tribulation which is of Christian rather than mythological origins. God condemned Adam for his disobedience, "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow thou shall eat it for all the days of thy life; thorns and thistles shall bring it forth to thee."(Genesis 3:17-18). Consequentially, ""Vermeer may have included this plant as a symbolic element precisely because he wanted to fuse mythological and Christian traditions."
The brass water basin with a nearby clothe contains water with which one of the companions washes Diana's feet after the day's hunt. The basin would seem to have Christian overtones of the cleansing of the soul although it can be associated with death as well.
The 1999-2000 restoration revealed important alterations which have occurred in time and have adulterated the original concept of the painting. In the place of the present dark, foreboding sky was an agreeable blue sky painted in the 19th century well known through reproductions. The canvas has also been trimmed; the kneeling figure to the right once fit almost entirely within the composition.
Based on Ovid's description in his Metamorphoses (book II, 401-503), this figure, "with downcast eyes," has been identified with Callisto who feared her pregnancy would be discovered causing certain expulsion from the goddess's' circle. Her buttoned-up, 16th-century dress contrasts with the loose attire of the other maidens.
Afterwards, banished by Diana, Callisto was transformed into a bear. The great shaggy creature wandered through the forest confused and frightened. One day she came across her son, Arcas. Overjoyed, she sprang forward to embrace him. The boy of course did not know she was his mother and he raised his hunting spear to strike. Zeus looking down from the heavens was moved by pity and before the youth could do any harm snatched them both into the sky and turned them into stars. Callisto became known as the Great Bear, or Ursa major and her son as Little Bear or Ursa minor.
The figure of Diana, the virgin goddess of hunting who personified chastity, can be identified by the crescent moon she wears in her hair. Her pose, although reversed, is often traced to the Bathsheba by Rembrandt.
Like that of the great Amsterdam master, Vermeer's treatment of the female figure appears full of tenderness and sympathy, a trait which would become a hallmark of the younger artist's pictorial conception. Furthermore, the satin garment, placed unequivocally in the center of the composition, seems to belong to contemporary fashion and may even anticipate Vermeer's life-long fascination with the yellow satin morning jacket of his interiors. The sweeping, although not always proficient, brushwork of the gown is reminiscent of Venetian Renaissance painting. This broadness would always distinguish Vermeer from his contemporary fijnschilders (fine painter). Even though his painting became far more descriptive and detailed than the present work, he never attempted to compete with the microscopic attention to detail that characterized that school.
Diana and Actaeon
1556-59
185 x 202 cm
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
Of the four Nymphs, only Callisto in the upper right can be identified by name. It is curious that Vermeer chose to portray all of them fully clad since painters had exploited the theme to explore the unabashed sensuality of the female form in all its beauty.
We feel that the young Vermeer is not entirely comfortable with nudity and had we not known that the upper left-hand figure with the back to the viewer was a nymph, it would have been difficult to determine her sex. Titian's Diana and Callisto, probably the most noted interpretation of the theme, could not have been directly seen by the young artist but prints of it circulated throughout Europe.
Vermeer chose to cast his only mythological painting in a pseudo-antique light by elongating Diana's dress and by wrapping the back of the turned figure with a piece of anonymous orange drapery.
Diana and Her Nymphs
Jacob van Loo
47 x 37 cm
Of the four Nymphs, only Callisto in the upper right can be identified by name. It is curious that Vermeer chose to portray all four nymphs almost fully clad since painters had exploited the theme to explore the unabashed sensuality of the female form in all its beauty.
We feel that the young Vermeer is not entirely comfortable with nudity and had we not known that the upper left-hand figure with the back to the viewer was a nymph, it would have been difficult to determine her sex. Titian's Diana and Callisto, probably the most noted interpretation of the theme, could not have been directly seen by the young artist but prints of it circulated throughout Europe.
Vermeer chose to cast his only mythological painting in a pseudo-antique light by elongating Diana's dress and by wrapping the back of the turned figure with a piece of anonymous orange drapery.
Diana with her Nymphs
Jacob van Loo
1648
136,8 x 170,6 cm
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie
The pose of the kneeling nymph strongly recalls a detail of a work by Van Loo to the left. By the middle of the 17th century Van Loo had made a name for himself both in Amsterdam and elsewhere. In 1649 Constantijn Huygens, the erudite secretary to the stadtholder Frederick Hendrik, had placed his name on a list of artists under consideration to decorate the new Huis ten Bosch palace near The Hague. His standing is further demonstrated by his mention alongside Rembrandt and Flinck in a poem written by Jan Vos in 1654. Vermeer lived a half hour from The Hague and was familiar with the classical painting in vogue at the Dutch noble court which resided there.
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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
c. 1655-1656
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Vermeer: The Complete Works , New York, 1997)
c. 1653-1654
Walter Liedtke (Vermeer: The Complete Paintings
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 resent on three side, 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 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
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 by Vermeer 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 a half-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 churning out hundreds upon hundreds of court portraits and allegorical subjects to suit a conservative, aristocratic vision of the world. A few years after he had terminated his apprenticeship, Vermeer unexpectedly changed artistic direction.
Diana Resting After The Hunt
Gerrit van Honthorst
97 x 160 cm
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 soon after the path of history painting 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 patronage he expected as a history painter did not materialize.
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. Contemporary Dutch art theorist and writer Karel van Mander 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 soul. Painting had been equated with poetry, most famously in the often-quoted words of Horace from his Arx Poetica (18 BC) ut pictura poesis (as is painting, so is poetry).
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.
In his influential Schilderboek, Karl 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 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.
When Vermeer painted his Diana he may have had in mind Van Mander's advice to show Italians how wrong they were in their belief that Flemish 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 the 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 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
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 evident signs of weakness and some passages downright clumsy as could 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 Dian 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
.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, in the history painting did not constitute the highest percentage of artistic output in the Netherlands. By far the largest part came from genres that art criticism classifies as inferior to historical narrative: 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 idea. 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.
1654
100 x 136 cm
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
1619
91,5 x 117,2 cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
Gerrit van Honthorst
97 x 160 cm
Jacob van Loo
c. 1650
Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum
Rembrandt van Rijn
1654
142 x 142 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Diana with her Nymphs
Jakob van Loo
1648
136,8 x 170,6 cm
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie