The Love Letter
(De liefdesbrief)
c. 1667-1670
oil on canvas
17 3/8 x 15 1/8 in. (44 x 38.5.cm)
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
The Music Lesson
Jacob Ochtervelt
1671
Art Institute of Chicago
If we are to trust genre interior paintings of the 17th century, Dutch houses were full of maps. The great majority of them were meant for decorative rather than didactic or practical purposes. This one, a map of Holland, must have been particularly pleasing to Vermeer since he utilized it in three other works. All of its features can be clearly observed in the early Officer and Laughing Girl where it appears to have been hand colored, or more likely colored by the artist.
Since the orthogonals of the map's design and lower hanging rod converge on the vanishing point of the painting's perspectival system, the wall on which it hangs must be at right angle to the right-hand section of wall behind the free-standing chair and musical score. No convincing explanation has been given for the front room's construction or function. It could have easily been an invention of the painter that suited composition exigencies.
The floral-patterned repoussoir tapestry (in French repoussoir means push back), which doubles for a curtain, is yet another element which helps to separate the pictured scene from the observer's space and enhance the illusion of depth and privacy. This widely exploited pictorial device stimulates the viewer's participation by subliminally inducing him to believe it was drawn-back to reveal some unexpected event which he will shortly witness.
Although the tapestry was not recorded in the inventory of movable goods taken after the artist's death, it may have been a personal possession of Vermeer since it appears in various paintings. Such an article would have clearly been considered a luxury item available to the well-to-do.
In the Lacemaker, a similar tapestry lies on the tabletop beneath the still-life and in the Allegory of Faith it lies on the raised platform. However, it produces the most stunning effect in the Art of Painting. In the Love Letter, part of aesthetic function of the sinuous floral pattern may have been to alleviate the almost obsessive geometrical scheme of the composition.
Landscape with Family Group
Adriaen van de Velde
1667
148 x 178 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Far from being a decorative filler, art-historical research has demonstrated that the many so-called pictures-within-picture in Vermeer's paintings relate iconographically to the scenes which unfold before them. Their meanings are drawn from 17th-century love songs (airs), love poems, courtesy literature, emblem books and even popular sayings. This picture-within-picture represents a lone wanderer (rendered with a few adept dabs of paint) in an idyllic landscape in the style of Adriaen van de Velde (see left).
The wanderer may reflect the separation and desire for reunion between the elegant young mistress and a distant lover represented by the missive in the mistress' hand. In Petrarchan verse, which had a profound influence on Dutch poetry and concept of romantic love, nature was depicted as a sympathetic witness of the lover's pains during his absence from the beloved.
Illustration from:
Minnebeelden: toe-ghepast
de lievende ionckheyt
Jan Harmensz. Krul
Amsterdam
1632
This anonymous seascape may represent an absent loved-one which presumably functions as a pictorial stand in for the author of the letter which has just been received by the seated mistress. Large numbers of Dutch women of the time must have experienced the great distances of the globe through their loved-ones at sea.
A significant percentage of able-bodied Dutchmen earned their living from sea trade or the fishing industry and both Dutch painters and poets drew heavily from seafaring experience for their imagery. On the other hand, the ship in the present picture-within-a-picture may be associated with the emblematic motif of the suitor as a ship on the sea of love searching the safe harbor of his lady's arms. The motto inscribed above Jan Krul's contemporary emblem (see left) reads: "Even Though You Are Far Away, You Are Never Out of My Heart." In any case, the calm sea and blue sky of the ebony-framed seascape in Vermeer's Love Letter may be a good omen in love providing a hint that the anxieties of the mistress are unfounded.
A Woman Drinking with Two Men (detail)
Pieter de Hooch
c. 1658
73,7 x 64,6
National Gallery, London
The hearth can be seen in a great variety and number of Dutch interior paintings. In the arts, the hearth was a prime symbol of domesticity and love. It was the "seat of warmth, light and therefore, by implication, of life itself."
In general, the Dutch fireplace was open on three sides with an overhanging hood and a mantle place where porcelain could be displayed. In a number of Dutch interior paintings, an important painting was hung directly over the fireplace. Other than its most obvious use for cooking, the hearth had an important secondary function. During the interminable Dutch nights, the hearth became the only source of light since candles were generally too expensive to use except for finding one's way from one room to another. In night hours, hearth must have been the gathering point of the family.
In the homes of the well-to do, fireplaces could be found in the side room, the zaal (hall) in the dining room and even in some bedrooms although in the decades when Vermeer lived the rooms of the Dutch homes were not clearly distinguished from one and another.
The typical structure of the kind of hearth in the present picture may be observed more advantageously in a detail of a work by Pieter de Hooch (see detail left) who worked in Delft during the years that Vermeer was active there. The presence of the richly decorated hearth in Vermeer's painting indicates that the scene takes place in the grote zaal, the most important room of the household used for representation in the homes of the moneyed.
A Party of Four Figures at a Table (detail)
Pieter de Hooch
1663-1665
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Together with the elegant mantelpiece, the two framed landscapes and costly marbled floors, the presence of gold-tooled leather wall coverings indicate that the scene takes place in the grote zaal (great hall). The grote zaal was habitually used by adults or when important visitors were present.
Decorative leather panels were particularly fashionable as wall coverings in the 16th and 17th centuries in the Netherlands. Tooled leather was also popular for small items such as boxes and dress accessories, as well as for larger objects such as trunks. They offered insulation and were seen as hygienic coverings for eating rooms, as well as being highly decorative.
Gilt wall coverings must have been common in the homes of the rich and frequently, at least according interior paintings of the time, covered entire rooms (see detail left). The effect must have been dazzling.
Seven ells of gilt wall coverings were described in Vermeer's death inventory of movable goods. The same coverings can be seen behind the still-life with a golden crucifix in Vermeer's Allegory of Faith.
A Party of Four Figures at a Table (detail)
Pieter de Hooch
1663-1665
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Together with the elegant mantelpiece, the two framed landscapes and costly marbled floors, the presence of gold-tooled leather wall coverings indicate that the scene takes place in the grote zaal (great hall). The grote zaal was habitually used by adults or when important visitors were present.
Decorative leather panels were particularly fashionable as wall coverings in the 16th and 17th centuries in the Netherlands. Tooled leather was also popular for small items such as boxes and dress accessories, as well as for larger objects such as trunks. They offered insulation and were seen as hygienic coverings for eating rooms, as well as being highly decorative.
Gilt wall coverings must have been common in the homes of the rich and frequently, at least according interior paintings of the time, covered entire rooms (see detail left). The effect must have been dazzling.
Seven ells of gilt wall coverings were described in Vermeer's death inventory of movable goods. The same coverings can be seen behind the still-life with a golden crucifix in Vermeer's Allegory of Faith.
Dutch painting specialists have not been able to provide a satisfactory iconographical meaning for the foreground broom and discarded morning slippers even though it is probable that they were readily understood by Vermeer's contemporaries. Perhaps they indicate the state of emotional abandon of the mistress who has neglected her daily chores. Samuel van Hoogstraten used both broom and slippers in an analogous see-through room painting which Vermeer may have used as a model for the present work. In any case, the broom, which has been painted darker than any other dark area of Vermeer's composition, bars the viewer from advancing thereby reinforcing the sense of privacy of the scene as it unfolds.
According to 17th-century commentators, the Dutch were obsessed with cleanliness, which no doubt lead to frequent representations of brooms. In literary and pictorial tradition the broom on occasion could be used as symbol of sex. They also were held to have magical properties such as ensuring that a house was free from evils spirits.
According to music expert Albert P. de Mirimonde, the crumpled piece of sheet music (tablature) does not make musical sense. Whether Vermeer's inaccuracy was accidental or deliberate cannot be known.
Tablature was a common Medieval and Renaissance form of musical notation that could be written for any fretted string instrument. Tablature tells the reader which frets to press and which strings to play.
Music songbooks flourished in the Dutch Republic. French and Italian models were popular since Dutch music was considered uninventive and undistinguished. The cittern, which the mistress holds, achieved its greatest importance in the 16th and 17th centuries and was held in high esteem both as an accompanying instrument for the singing voice or for dance music. Many compositions were written expressively for it, often intricate and difficult to play. The solo repertoire required a substantial technical virtuosity.
Whatever its proper use may have been, this piece of fabric appears in at least three other pictures by the artist. Its design and fold seems comparable to light yellow and blue-bordered one which drapes from under the still-life in The Art of Painting. It is difficult to have a precise idea of its texture. If we are to judge by its rendering in the Art of Painting, it appears to be made of some kind of reflective cloth, such as silk or caffa which was used for interior decoration. Vermeer's father had been trained to work in caffa. It is very likely that it again appears in the Allegory of Faith and may even be the pendant of the makeshift turban worn by the illustrious Girl with a Pearl Earring.
The clothes hamper and dark blue naaikussen (sewing pillow) that lies unattended may have been to indicate the anxieties of love which have kept the mistress from her domestic responsibilities. A large clothes hamper once appeared behind the standing maid in Vermeer's early Milkmaid but was painted out by the artist himself for unknown reasons.
From a technical point of view, the hamper in the present work is an amazing piece of pictorial abstraction whereby the complexities of optical world is reduced to a sort of daring shorthand brushwork. Its few shapes and tones comforts art historians who believe that Vermeer used the camera obscura as an optical aid for his painting.
A similar sewing pillow is featured in the still life of the Lacemaker. Lacemaking and sewing were associated with one of the principal social norms of 17th-century Netherlands: domestic virtue.
We do not know the real identity of the young woman who posed for the seated mistress. In fact, not a single sitter in Vermeer's oeuvre has ever been identified even though specialists tend to believe that Vermeer used his own family members as did other genre painters of the time.
Although Vermeer is generally not credited for the psychological profundity of his sitters, the present picture exhibits a notable attention to the emotional interaction between the standing maid and her mistress. While the mistress clearly belongs to a socially elevated class, the maid's body language, wry smile, central position and standing posture overturn the mistress' hierarchical superiority. Art historian Lisa Vergara observed that her posture, with her arms akimbo, is usually reserved for men in Dutch art. "A diagonal white sash adds to her confident, nearly cocky demeanor (as if she were a domestic, feminine version of a civic guardsman), and an exceptionally high, white headcovering further increases her stature."
The mistress' yellow satin morning jacket must be the one listed in Vermeer's death inventory of movable goods and no doubt, to Catharina Bolnes, Vermeer's beloved wife who gave the artist 11 children during their twenty-year marriage. This jacket, or manteltge as it was called in Delft, allowed Dutch upper-class women to elegantly protect themselves against the cold of the interminable Dutch winters while they performed household chores. Its loose fit permitted freedom of movement. Judging by the number of times they appear in Dutch interior painting, it must have been an immensely popular garment in the mid 17th-century Netherlands.
This elegant gown was most likely made of caffa, a luxurious material made principally for upholstery and fine clothing. It is known that Vermeer's father worked in caffa and, thus, some specialists have supposed that the artist's penchant for depicting this kind of material was linked to his parental affection.
The gown's simple yet elegant block-like shape is a masterpiece of pictorial sythesis which describes both the material's texture and the position of the mistress' legs with two tones of light yellow and one deep ochre tone. Its golden hue differs subtly from the lemon tone of the fur-lined morning jacket. The gown may have been glazed with a thin transparent layer of pigment called woude (weld), a natural dyestuff obtained from the cultivated plant Dyer's Rocket. Weld was one of the most widely used dyes for cloth and was used by painters as well even though it had a tendency to fade easily.
The Duet (detail)
Cornelis Saftleven
1635
34 x 53 cm
Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna
As Vermeer expert Albert Blankert pointed out, music making is a sign of love in many emblem books. "Sometimes the lover is compared with a musical instrument, whose strings or keys are touched by the beloved."
The cittern - and not lute - held by the mistress was one of the most popular musical instruments of the 16th and 17th century and it was also the one most frequently depicted by Vermeer and his colleagues (see detail left). Although its form may recall the more familiar lute, it has a very different history and above all, it produces a very different sound making it adapted for different music. Its brisk metallic sound, somewhat like a banjo, adapts itself perfectly to the brilliant coloring and sharp divisions between lights and darks of the present composition.
The cittern's body is flat and easily constructed while the lute's pear-shaped body demands considerable talent and experience to construct. The cittern's strings are made of metal while the lute's are made of natural animal gut. In particular, the brass strings of the cittern sound much louder, also because they are played with a plectrum. Instead, the lute is plucked by the bare fingers and produces a softer, nostalgic tone. Vermeer may have chosen to depict this particular instrument according to the painting's iconographic program. Perhaps it held a particular meaning which was more evident to his viewers, although it can certainly not be ruled out that the curious almond-like form would have appealed to Vermeer's aesthetic sensibilities.
Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini
and his Wife (detail)
Jan van Eyck
1434
82 x 60 cm
National Gallery, London
Slippers are frequently represented in Dutch interior paintings of the time even though they had been depicted many years before by Flemish painters, Jan van Eyck's famous Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife being one of the most illustrious examples (see detail left).
Like many other objects which populate Northern paintings, experts have come to agree that each may have carried different and even contrasting symbolic meanings depending on the context in which they were portrayed. For example, a mirror, one of the most ubiquitous symbols in the history of Western painting, could allude to vanity or self-knowledge, while pearls, one of the most characteristic accessories in Vermeer's work, are linked with vanity but also with virginity, a wide enough iconographic spectrum. Discarded slipper could be used as a sexual innuendo although in the present case, they could be a signal of an unkempt house. In any case, it should be noted that slippers were worn in the bedroom. For some reason, in the present picture they are instead found in the grote zaal (great hall) used for adults and receiving important visitors.
The depiction of the two female figures is a masterpiece of both painting and theatre. One can almost feel a flicker of electricity that flows through their glances and the momentary upsetting of social rank. For a brief moment, it is the maid who seem to be in control and the mistress who cautiously pleas for assistance.
The figure of the maid, who has presumably just consigned a love letter, contrasts with that of the nervous, uncertain mistress. Her billowing white cap, which is echoed in the clouds of the background painting, makes her seem even taller. Her positive demeanor and cocky smile tells us, according to art historian Lisa Vergara, that the "lady's concern will prove unfounded. The calm sea represented in the large painting behind the two women support this conclusion. Since the missive is sealed, however, we wonder how the maid could have discerned its contents." Dutch plays and popular literature often dealt with the household maid who overstepped their station.
Other than by body language, Vermeer emphasized the emotional exchange by bonding the two figures with the lengthy, sharp contour that unites them on the surface of the canvas.
Willemijn Fock, a historian of the decorative arts, has demonstrated effectively that floors paved with marble tiles were extremely rare in the Dutch 17th-century houses. In the homes of the very wealthy where floors of this type were sometimes found, they were usually confined to smaller spaces such as voorhuis, corridors and upper story sleeping or storage rooms. To establish the complicated perspective of the receeding tiles Vermeer most likely worked from a mathematical grid based on real, common ceramic tiles and adapted their patterns and colors to the necessities of each composition.
In the Love Letter, a row of five successive white tiles guides the viewer's attention away form the foreground towards the central dialogue of the mistress and maid. Vermeer has given the black tiles a distinctive cool bluish cast which subtly activates the warmth of colors of the figure's dress. The veins of the white tiles are rendered with calligraphic brushstrokes free from constraints of optical fidelity opposite from the careful description manner deployed in the earlier Music Lesson.
These long quickly painted brushstrokes evidently were meant to represent a soiled wall, a curious anomaly in Vermeer's pristine interiors. No critic has ever brought this fact in relation to the painting's meaning although it is hard to believe that such a carefully constructed composition, where each and every detail is determined with the utmost deliberation, could have been casual.
critical excerpt
c. 1669-1670
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. Vermeer: The Complete Works, New York, 1997)
c. 1669-1670
Walter Liedtke Vermeer: The Complete Paintings, New York, 2008)
The existing canvas may not be original. X-radiography shows a closed plain-weave with a thread count of 16.25 x 14 per cm ².
The apparently double ground comprises a red layer followed by a gray layer containing chalk, umber, and a little lead white. Between the two is a thin, unpigmented layer. The red layer may be related to a transfer process.
The paint surface is smooth, with few individual brushstrokes discernible. The dark, gray tiles were painted first, and then the white tiles were painted before the gray tiles were dry. The chair and part of the scarf draped over it the right foreground were underpainted with red lake. The maid's blue apron was painted with a blue-gray underpaint followed by a mixture of blue and white with a final blue glaze. The blue appears to be ultramarine, a lighter patch of which on the mistress' lap can be seen to extend under the bottom of the lute. The vanishing point of the composition is visible on the x-radiograph. The painting was cut off the stretcher during its theft in 1971. The resulting paint loss was mainly restricted to a band approximately 0.5 centimeter wide on either side of the cuts, although there are more serious losses in the top right corner and the center-right area. There is some surface abrasion.
* Johannes Vermeer (exh. cat., National Gallery of Art and Royal Cabinet of Paintings Mauritshuis - Washington and The Hague, 1995, edited by Arthur Wheelock)
literature
- Pieter van Lennep, Amsterdam (c.1810?-d.1850);
- his daughter, Margaretha Catharina van Lennep, Amsterdam (1850-d.1891);
- married Jan Messchert van Vollenhoven [d.1881] in 1850);
- J.F. van Lennep, Amsterdam (1892);
- Messchert van Vollenhoven/Van Engelenberg sale, Amsterdam, 29 March 1892, no. 14 (to J. Ankersmit of the Vereniging Rembrandt);
- Vereniging Rembrandt, Amsterdam (1892-93);
- purchased in January 1893 by the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. A 1595).
- Amsterdam 1867
Katalogus der tentoonstelling van schilderijen van oude meesters. Arti et amicitiae.
18, no. 113. - The Hague 1890
56, no. 116. - Amsterdam 1892
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unpaginated, no. A. - Amsterdam October 21–November 3, 1935
Vermeer tentoonstelling ter herdenking van de plechtige opening van het Rijksmuseum op 13 july 1885. Rijksmuseum.
30, no. 169. - New York 1954
Dutch Painting: The Golden Age. An Exhibitio of Dutch Pitcures of Seventeenth Century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
no. 86 and ill. - Rome December 1956 - January 1957
Le XVII siècle Européen. Réalisme classique baroque. Palazzo delle Esposizioni.
245-246, no. 310 and pl. 27. - London 1964
The Orange and the Rose. Holland and Britain in the Age of Observation 1600-1750. Victoria and Albertum Museum.
44, no. 74 and ill. 5. - Stockholm 1967
Holländska mästare. I svensk ägo. Nationalmuseum.
26 and ill. 9. - Brussels 1971
Rembrandt en zijn tijd. Palaeis voor Schone Kunsten.
132-133, no. 112 and ill. - Amsterdam 1976
Tot lering en vermaak. Betekenissen van Hollande genrevoorstellingen uit de zeventiende eeuw. Rijksmuseum.
268-271, no. 71, and ill. - Madrid 19 February – 18 May, 2003
Vermeer y el interior holandés. Museo Nacional del Prado.
182-183, no. 39 and ill. - Dublin 1 October – 31 December 2003
Love letters: Dutch genre painting in the age of Vermeer. National Gallery of Ireland.
no. 38, fig. 55, repro. 181. - Frankfurt 10 February – 1 May, 2005
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The Golden Age of Dutch Painting, Masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum. Museum of Islamic Art. - St Petersburg 14 October – 6 November 2011
Love Letter by Vermeer. From the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
In the Masterpieces from the World`s Museums in the Hermitage series. Italian Cabinet (233), New Hermitage. - Istanbul 21 February - 10 June, 2012
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| vermeer's life | Vermeer's name is mentioned in a poem by Arnold Bon in Dirck van Bleyswijck's Beschryvinge der Stadt Delft (Description of the City of Delft) published in 1667. It is the most significant and direct reference to Vermeer's art to be found. The poem written by Arnold Bon, Bleyswyck's publisher, was composed in the honor of Carel Fabritius who had died in the famous ammunitions explosion. Vermeer's name is lauded in the poem's last stanza.
Maria Thins empowers Vermeer to collect various debts owed to her and to reinvest the money according to his will and discretion. Vermeer's mother-on-law evidently maintained her moral and financial support of Vermeer and his family. Another of Vermeer's children is buried in the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft. |
| dutch painting | Gabriel Metsu, ecclectic Dutch painter, dies. |
| european painting & architecture | Francesco Borromini, Italian sculptor and architect, dies. Borromini designed the San Ivo della Sapienza church in Rome Alonso Cano, Spanish painter and architect, dies. |
| music | German composer-organist-harpsichordist Johann Jakob Froberger dies at Héricourt, France. His keyboard suites will be published in 1693, arranged in the order that will become standard: allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue. |
| literature | Paradise Lost is written by John Milton, who has been blind since 1652 but has dictated to his daughters the 10-volume work on the fall of man, Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. Milton's Adam questions the angel Raphael about celestial mechanics, Raphael replies with some vague hints and then says that "the rest from Man or Angel the great Architect did wisely conceal and not divulge His secrets to be scann'd by them who ought rather admire." The work enjoys sales of 1,300 copies in 18 months and will be enlarged to 12 volumes in 1684, the year of Milton's death; Annus Mirabilis by John Dryden is about the Dutch War and last year's Great Fire. Nov 7, Jean Racine's Andromaque, premiered in Paris. |
| science & philosophy | National Observatory, Paris, founded |
| history | Pope Alexander VII dies. Giulio Rospigliosi becomes Pope Clement IX. c. 1667 In France, during the reign of King Louis XIV, the fork begins to achieve popularity as an eating implement. Formerly, only knives and spoons had been used. Jun 18, The Dutch fleet sailed up the Thames and threatened London. They burned 3 ships and capture the English flagship. Jun 21, The Peace of Breda endsthe Second Anglo-Dutch War (1664-67) and sees the Dutch cede New Amsterdam (on Manhattan Island) to the English in exchange for the island of Surinam. De Verstandige Kok (The Sensible Cook) is published for the first time. Geared towards middle- and upper middle-class families, the book advises a regular and balanced diet, including fresh meat at least once a week, frequent servings of bread and cheese, stew, fresh vegetables and salads. While simple dishes, such as porridge, pancakes and soup with bread are eaten by all classes, studies reveal that only the affluent have regular access to fresh vegetables during the period; the less wealthy depend on dried peas and beans. |
| vermeer's life | Vermeer signs and dates the Astronomer 1668. Some scholars believe that Delft citizen Antony van Leeuwenhoek, who was by then internationally recognized for his studies in optics and scientific observations, posed for the Astronomer, although portraits of Leeuwenhoek bears little resemblance to the seated man in Vermeer's picture. |
| dutch painting | Rembrandt paints Return of the Prodigal Son. Gabriel van de Velde paints Golfers on the Ice. Philips Wouwerman, Dutch painter, dies. He was the most celebrated member of a family of Dutch painters from Haarlem, where he worked virtually all his life. He became a member of the painters' guild in 1640 and is said by a contemporary source to have been a pupil of Frans Hals. The only thing he has in common with Hals, however, is his nimble brushwork, for he specialized in landscapes of hilly country with horses - cavalry skirmishes, camps, hunts, travelers halting outside an inn, and so on. In this genre he was immensely prolific and also immensely successful. |
| european painting & architecture | Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt, Austian architect, is born. Bernini sculpts a terra cotta study for one of the angels of Rome's Port Santa Angelo. |
| music | Nov 10, Francois Couperin, composer and organist (Concerts Royaux), is born in Paris, France. Danish organist-composer Diderik Buxtehude, 31, is named organist at the Marienkirche in Lübeck, succeeding Franz Tunder (whose daughter, Anna, he marries).His sacred Abendmusiken concerts will be presented each year during Advent on the five Sundays before Christmas. Buxtehude's cantatas and instrumental organ work will have a strong influence on other composers. Mar 5, Francesco Gasparini, composer, is born. |
| literature | Apr 13, John Dryden (36) became 1st English poet laureate. |
| science & philosophy | Robert Hooke: Discourse on Earthquakes. Newton invents the reflecting telescope, building the first telescope based on a mirror (reflector) instead of a lens (refractor). First accurate description of red corpuscles by Anthony van Leeuwenhoek. Leeuwenhoek was born in the same year as Vermeer and is often associated to the artist for their interest in optics. Chemist Johann R. Glauber dies at Amsterdam March 10 at age 63. |
| history | Mar 26, England takes control of Bombay, India. Mar 27, English king Charles II gives Bombay to the East India Company. Sep 16, King John Casimer II of Poland abdicates his throne. Louis XIV of France purchased the 112 carat blue diamond from John Baptiste Tavernier for 220,000 livre. Tavernier is also given a title of nobility. Feb 7, The Netherlands, England and Sweden conclude an alliance directed against Louis XIV of France. |
| vermeer's life | Vermeer's mother, Digna Baltens, leases the inn Mechelen to a shoemaker for three years. She and her husband had worked in the place for 28 years. Afterwards she goes to live with her daughter Gertruy on the Vlamingstraat, in Delft. Vermeer and his wife bury another child in the Oude Kerk. Pieter Teding van Berckhout, from an important family in The Hague, visits Vermeer twice and enters in his diaries his impressions. In May 14,1669, Van Berckhout writes: "Having arrived in Delft, I saw an excellent painter named Vermeer," stating also that he had seen several "curiosities" of the artist. He had arrived in Delft accompanied by Constantijn Huygens and his friends - member of parliament Ewout van der Horst and ambassador Willem Nieupoort. Huygens was an artistic authority in his own day, maintaining contacts with the famous Flemish painters Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck and recording in his own diary some remarkably insightful comments about the art of, among others, Rembrandt van Rijn. Van Berckhout must have been deeply impressed by the work he saw in Vermeer 's studio, since he returned for another visit less than a month later. On June 11, Van Berckhout notes: "I went to see a celebrated painter named Vermeer" who "showed me some examples of his art, the most extraordinary and most curious aspect of which consists in the perspective." This time Van Berckhout used the term "celebrated" rather than "excellent" in describing Vermeer. This testifies Vermeer had achieved a rather considerable reputation. What is most interesting about this visit is that Vermeer's studio (like Dou and van Mieris) had evidently evidentbecome a major cultural destination. |
| dutch painting | Oct. 4, Rembrandt dies, eleven months later after his son, Titus, in 1668 - only 27 years of age. His beloved Hendrickje had died in 1663. |
| european painting & architecture | Le Vau begins remodeling Versailles. The semicircular Sheldonian Theater at Oxford, England, designed by Christopher Wren, is completed. |
| music | Royal patent for founding Academie Royale des Operas granted to Pierre Perrin. Marc' Antonio Cesti, Italian composer, dies. The first Stradivarius violin is created by Italian violinmaker Antonio Stradivari, 25, who has served an apprenticeship in his home town of Cremona in Lombardy to Nicola Amati, now 73, whose grandfather Andrea Amati designed the modern violin. The younger Amati has improved on his grandfather's design and taught not only Stradivari but also Andrea Guarnieri, 43, who also makes violins at Cremona. |
| literature | |
| science & philosophy | Arnold Geulincx (b. 1624), Dutch philosopher, dies. Nicolaus Steno (1638- 1687) begins the modern study of geology. Nils Steensen's Prodromus is first published in Italy and translated to English two years later. It explains the author's determination of the successive order of the earth strata. Emperor Leopold I sanctions the foundation of a higher school in Innsbruck, Austria. This is considered to mark the founding of the University of Innsbruck. A General History of the Insects by Jan Swammerdam presents a preexistence theory of genetics that the seed of every living creature was formed at the creation of the world and that each generation is contained in the generation that preceded it |
| history | Pope Clement IX dies at Rome December 9 at age 69 after a 2½-year reign in which he has encouraged missionary work, reduced taxes, and extended hospitality to Sweden's former queen Kristina. He will not be replaced until next year. Feb 1, French King Louis XIV limits the freedom of religion. Mar 11, Mount Etna in Sicily erupts killing 15,000. Sep 27, The island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea falls to the Ottoman Turks after a 21-year siege. |
| vermeer's life | Vermeer's mother is buried in the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft, February 13. Geertruijt Reynier Vermeer, Vermeer's sister, is buried at the beginning of May in the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft. Vermeer inherits Mechelen from his mother, July 13. He rents it to a shoemaker caller Van Ackerdyck. Vermeer is appointed for a second time headmen of the Saint Luke's Guild. He continues to paint in an "abstract" mode paying greater attention to pattern and the compositional structure of his works. Scholars have asserted that Vermeer may have been following the popular French mode of painting. Delft pop. 15,000 |
| dutch painting | |
| european painting & architecture | Louis Le Vau, Fr. architect, d. (b. 1612) Landscape architect André Lenôtre lays out the Champs-Elysées at Paris. |
| music | Molière's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme includes a ballet with music by court composer Jean Baptiste Lully, 38, who has come to France from his native Florence and changed his name from Giovanni Battista Lulli. The ballet is so popular that four performances are requested in the space of 8 days. |
| literature | Feb 10, William Congreve, English writer (Old Bachelor, Way of the World), is born. John Ray prints a book of aphorisms such as: "Blood is thicker than water..." and "Haste makes waste." |
| science & philosophy | Italian scientist Giovanni Borelli attempts to use artificial wings to flying. London clockmaker William Clement improves the accuracy of clocks by inventing anchor-shaped gadgets (escapements) that control the escape of a clock's driving force. Parts of Baruch de Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-Politicus are published anonymously. Spinoza shows that the Bible, if properly understood, gives no support to the intolerance of religious authorities and their interference in civil and political affairs. The book creates a furor. It will provoke widespread denunciations as it goes through five editions in the next 5 years, and Spinoza moves to The Hague to gain the protection of influential friends. Now 37, he suffers from tuberculosis after years of inhaling glass dust produced by his lens-making. |
| history | Cardinal Emilio Altieri becomes Pope Clement X. May 2, The Hudson Bay Co. is chartered by England's King Charles II to exploit the resources of the Hudson Bay area. The Dutch merchant marine has become larger than that of England, France, Spain and Portugal combined. Minute hands first appear on watches. Cafe Procope, the first cafe in Paris, begins serving ice cream. France's Louis XIV founds Les Invalides at Paris to house up to 7,000 disabled soldiers. |
| vermeer's life | In July Vermeer appears before the notary Nicolaes van Assendelft to acknowledge that he had received an inheritance of 148 guilders from his sister's estate. |
| dutch painting | Adriaen van Ostade paints Travelers Resting. |
| european painting & architecture | Lionel Bruant: Hôtel des Invalides, Paris. Christopher Wren: The Monument to commemorate the Great Fire of London in 1666 |
| music | Feb 19, Charles-Hubert Gervais, composer, is born. Dec 1, Francesco Stradivari, Italian violin maker and son of Antonius, is born. Paris Opera opens with Robert Cambert's opera Pomone. The French Académie de Royale Musique opens March 3 in the Salle du Jeu de Paume de la Bouteille. Jean Baptiste Lully will take over the Paris Opéra beginning next year and run it until 1687, rebuilding the house after fires that will destroy it in 1678 and 1681 |
| literature | Apr 6, Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, French playwright, poet (Sacred Odes & Songs), is born. Molière writes his farce Les Fourberies de Scapin (The Wiles of Scapin or Scapin the Cheat). |
| science & philosophy | In Germany Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz devised a mechanical calculator to add, subtract, multiply and divide. Astronomer Jean Picard visits the observatory of the late Tycho Brache on Hven Island, Sweden, to determine its exact location in order that observations there can be compared with precision to those made elsewhere. He returns to Paris with copies of Brahe's work and will use them to help him obtain an accurate measurement of the length of a degree of a meridian (longitude line) for use in computing the size of the Earth. |
| history | c. 1671 first printed reference to an alphabet rhyme, a rhyme composed to help children learn their letters. Apr 22, King Charles II sits in on English parliament. Colonel Thomas Blood, Irish adventurer, steals the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. |
Woman Reading a Letter
Gabriel Metsu
1662-65
53 x 40 cm
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
The theme of maid and mistress was enormously popular among Dutch genre painters. Prior to the Lover Letter, Vermeer had explored its potential in one of his largest works, the Mistress and Maid. In both works Vermeer masterfully portrays the moment in which a maid delivers (or perhaps consigned) a letter, presumably a love letter. In the present picture, the wry smile on maid's face and the questioning expression of her mistress reveals the uncertainty of love within the apparent sanctuary of well-appointed interior. To underscore the ambivalence of the moment, Vermeer depicted a laundry basket, morning slippers, a broom and even a crumpled piece of sheet music strewn about in apparent disorder.
Vermeer may have drawn inspiration from Gabriel Metsu's work of similar theme and composition painted years earlier (see image left) although it is equally possible that it was Vermeer's picture that inspired Metsu. According to the art historian Adriaan E. Waiboer, Vermeer may be credited to have influenced his collegues more than is believed. He writes, "Gabriel Metsu painted some five works in the mid-1660s that reveal his knowledge of Vermeer's work. His most renowned in this respect are the companion pieces A Man Writing a Letter and a Woman Reading a Letter. In these paintings, various the presence of white plastered back wall parallel to the picture plane and the idea of creating solidity by dividing up the composition into geometrical shapes, are instantly recognisable as Vermeer-like."
In Dutch painting, maids were generally pictured in their subservient, passive role. They care for children and are dutifully supervised by the mistress of the house. Occasionally, a few painters, including Vermeer himself ( see The) Milkmaid, portrayed maids in a sympathetic light according them a dignity reserved for members of the upper class. In emblematic and popular literature of the day, however, maids were frequently cast as a threat to the security of the home, the center of Dutch life.
With the unparalleled surge in literacy in the Netherlands, common women, for the first time, committed their feelings to paper. First person statements in the Dutch Republic, including letter writing, private diaries, journals, soul searching poems and self-portraits, proliferated far beyond their Renaissance role in aristocratic culture.
Letter writing manuals written in vernacular Dutch flourished. They offered instructions not only for fine calligraphy but in regards to style and elements of composition as well. It was only logical that this novel and widespread activity would become a favorite subject for painters.
Letters richly evoke the thoughts, emotions and locations of the depicted figures and equally of the absent ones precisely because the viewer will never know the contents of the letter. However, the love letter was far from innocuous as it may appear at first glance. Contemporary literature declared the litterae amatoriae a proper subject of legal inquiry. A love letter might imply a promise of marriage or adultery if one were already married.
The title page of:
Proteus Ofte Minne-Beelden Verandert
In Sinne-Beelden
Jacob Cats
1627
Understanding the symbolic content of Vermeer's paintings has proved particularly problematic. The complicated Love Letter, with its clutter of objects, has given birth to variety of supposed meanings. But some Dutch art specialists now believe that the difficulty in explaining Vermeer's paintings may be due to the fact that the artist deliberately left his meanings open.
Dutch art historian Eddy de Jongh point out that the concepts of hidden meaning, concealment, deception (schijn sonder sijn, seeming without being) and iconographic flexibility were characteristic features of 17th-century culture. Jacob Cats, the author of numerous popular emblem books (see image left), wrote that concealment is often more effective than saying things openly. Moreover, this "pleasing obscurity" gives the reader "a rare inner satisfaction" when he later [discovers] "the true aim and purpose." These concepts were also present in the preambles of Dutch novels and plays and it seems highly likely that painters were sensitive to them as well.
It is largely accepted that Vermeer used a camera obscura (a kind of precursor to the modern photographic camera) as an aid to his painting. The camera obscura was well known in both scientific and artistic circles and was recommended to painters for both studying nature as well as tracing its image to shortcut problems of drawing and perspective. Although the camera obscura leaves no physical trace on the canvas, many of the peculiar characteristics of the image it produces may be found in the Love Letter and in many other paintings by Vermeer, especially the so-called pointillés. Pointillés, or spherical disks of light are produced by the imperfect lens of the 17th-century camera obscura in situations of extreme light contrast. Pointillés can clearly be observed on the clothes hamper and on the gilded leather wall covering (see detail left) behind the maid and mistress.
Couple with Parrot
Pieter de Hooch
1668
73 x 62 cm
Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne
During his career Vermeer devised various means to establish and enhance the private spaces for little bourgeois dramas. In this picture the viewer stands in another room, distant from the unfolding scene of the maid and mistress who remain unaware of his presence. This pictorial convention, called doorkijkje, was practiced by other Dutch genre painters as well. On the basis of costume, scholars believe that Peter de Hooch's Couple with a Parrot (see left), which is strikingly similar to Vermeer's composition. The fact that Vermeer drew heavily from models invented by lesser artists should not surprise. In the 17th century, intellectual property was an unknown concept. Everyone could draw on the storerooms of tradition. It was a matter of course that painters freely traded with each other technical, stylistic and iconographical inventions in order to speed production and cater to constantly changing tastes of the art market.
It is almost certain that De Hooch's (or Vermeer's) composition was based on a third work by Samuel van Hoogstraten, Interior with Slippers, painted at least ten years earlier. Vermeer had painted at least one other doorkijkje (which has not survived) described in the Dissius auction of twenty-one Vermeer paintings in Amsterdam in 1696: "a gentleman washing his hands through a see-through room with sculpture."
Cupid with a Messanger
emblem from Otto Vaenius,
Amorum Emblemata...
Antwerp, 1608
Faculty of Arts, Utrecht University Library
Although an upsurge letter writing had given birth to a thriving postal service in 17th-century Netherlands, it was far from organized. Messengers multiplied but complaints often arose about these "hirelings" who tended to inflate postage rates. They were also noted for their impertinent behavior. Some great men and well-to-do private citizens retained their own trusted private couriers in order to maintain communication secret. Servant girls could rarely sign their name and probably could not read, suggesting that they provided an exceptionally discreet corps of letter delivery.
Even though the literacy rate in the Netherlands was unusually high, females were less literate since they were usually given less formal education and were not permitted to attend Latin school. The Hague poet Jacob Westerbaen, enlarging on Ovid's Art of Love, recommended women to "show your mind with letters," to learn to hold the quill in the right hand and the lyre in the left, and to entrust letters with suitable maids.
The Voice of the Ghost [1.62 MB]
Anthony Holborne
performed by Lee Santana
The Cittern
In Italian Renaissance humanist culture the cittern was regarded as a classical revival of the ancient Greek kithara even though it seems to have its direct development from the medieval citole. It presents some similarities with the fiddle, as its plucked form.
The structure and tuning of the cittern varied almost from country to country. While in England, France and northern Europe, the small four-course-instrument was commonly used, Italian musicians preferred the larger six-course instrument.
The cittern achieved the height of its diffusion in the 16th and 17th centuries. Above all, in Italy and in England it was held in high esteem both as an accompanying instrument for the singing voice or for dance music. Many compositions written expressively for it, often intricate and demanding to play.
The great number of paintings depicting citterns proves the instrument's widespread popularity in the 17th-century Netherlands. With its flat back it was more robust in structure than the fragile lute, therefore cheaper and more portable. The cittern's playability made it the preferred instrument especially of the middle and upper classes for song accompaniment and dance music.
The cittern has a shallow round or pear-shaped body tapering from the bottom towards the neck. The body is carved from one piece of wood and only the soundboard and fingerboard were added separately. The use of metal strings plucked with a quill or plectrum gives the instrument its sprightly and cheerful sound, one of the reason for the its great popularity.
A Woman Handing a Coin to
a Serving Woman with a Child
Pieter de Hooch
c. 1668-1672
73 x 66 cm
Private collection
Vermeer needn't look far for inspiration for the present work. The interplay between the mistress and maid was a recurrent theme in Dutch interior painting, especially in Southern Holland. A Woman Handing a Coin to a Serving Woman with a Child by Pieter de Hooch makes a revealing comparison. While scholars assume that the two painters assiduously interacted to each others work, the exact nature of their give-and-take relationship is hard to define.
In both paintings, we view a seated mistress who temporarily suspends her activity and interacts with a standing maid. To the left is an elaborate fireplace, to the right a clothes basket and behind framed objects on the wall. As would be expected, the mistresses flaunt their most elegant household clothing and hairstyles while the maids wear standard working garments. De Hooch's picture allows us to imagine the nearby opened window which is concealed in Vermeer's version. Unfortunately neither of the works bears a date so we cannot know who drew inspiration from whom.
De Hooch's narrative couldn't be simpler. The mistress hands a coin to the maid, who carries a shiny marketing pail looped over her arm, so that she can make her purchases. The primped-up daughter of the mistress pulls at the maid's skirt, anxious to tag along to the market place. The scene exudes serenity and good intensions. On the other hand, as befits his more complex temperament, Vermeer investigates the psychological undercurrents at work between the two women who are divided by their social class but linked by their sex. The tough-looking servant hovers over her mistress, her hand confidently on her hip. A wry smile informs us that she may be in the know regarding the contents of the letter she has just handed over to her maid.
The role of the maid in Dutch society is ambivalent. In some instances they were considered a sort necessary evil, especially in popular literature. Theatrical satires and household manuals warn of their natural laziness and propensity to all sorts of mischief, form eavesdropping to drunkenness. One of their bad habits was to their tendency to dress as well as their mistress. Countless stories involve enterprising maids who cunningly take advantage of the sexual advances of the mistress' foolish husband.
However, according to eye-witnesses, Dutch maids were generally treated favorably, occasionally, too much so. Written accounts describe close relationships between the mistress and maid, to the point that the maid could be mistaken for a family member. A visiting Frenchman told of a wife who scolded her husband for asking the maid to fetch something, ordering him to fetch it for himself.
In painting, Dutch maids were treated negatively and positively. Nicolas Maes shows them asleep neglecting her duties or eavesdropping on an amorous meeting in her mistress' household. On the other hand, De Hooch could show a maid working together with her mistress in cheerful serenity. In visual terms De Hooch's pictures portray the sort of collaboration auspicated in handbooks on housekeeping. The good mistress was encouraged to keep a watchful eye on their servant but at the same time able to work alongside them as well in harmony.
Gabriel Metsu
1662-65
53 x 40 cm
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
Pieter de Hooch
1668
73 x 62 cm
Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne
Samuel van Hoogstraten
c. 1670
103 x 70 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Pieter de Hooch
c. 1668-1672
Museum de bildenden, Künste, Leipzig
Pieter de Hooch
c. 1668-1672
73 x 66 cm
Private collection