The Love Letter

The Music Lesson
Jacob Ochtervelt
1671
Art Institute of Chicago

If we can trust genre interior painting 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, which can be barely made out, must have been particularly pleasing to Vermeer since he used it in three other works. All of its features can be clearly observed in the early Officer and Laughing Girl.

It shows Holland and West Friesland even though it may not be readily understood since it is oriented west at the top. During this period, north at the top was not standard practice as it is today. It was designed by Balthasar Florisz. van Berckenrode in 1620. The printing rights and copper plates were later acquired by Willem Jansz. Blaeu who headed a florid publishing house specialized in maps. Although this map contains no date, it must have been printed between 1621, when Bleau received plates and privilege to publish the map, and 1629, when the privilege expired.

Only one example exists (West Fries Museum in Hoorn) and confirms the precision of Vermeer's rendering. All the maps in Vermeer's painting were printed in Amsterdam which was then one of the principle centers of map-making in the world.

The floral-patterned repoussoir(in French repoussoir means push back) tapestry, which doubles for a curtain, is yet another element which helps to divide the pictured scene from the observer's space and enhance the illusion of depth. It stimulates the viewer's participation who is subliminally induced to believe it was drawn-back to reveal some unexpected event which he will shortly witness.

This tapestry may have been a personal possession of Vermeer since it appears in various paintings. It most likely would have been considered a luxury item. In the Lacemaker, it 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 dramatic effect in the Art of Painting. In the Love Letter, the sinuous patterns of flowers and leaves mitigate the highly geometric 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-pictures" 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 and courtesy literature. This painting 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. 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

The anonymous seascape may represent an absent loved-one who is presumably the author of the missive which has just been plced in the hand of the mistress. Many Dutch women of the time must have experienced the great distances of the globe through their loved-ones.

A significant percentage of able-bodied Dutch men earned their living from sea trade and Dutch painters and poets drew heavily from seafaring experience for their imagery. On the other hand, the ship in the 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 kind of tiled hearth in Vermeer's painting can be seen in great number and variety of Dutch interior paintings. It should be remembered that the Dutch winters were long and cold and thus the hearth had a fundamental practical importance in Dutch homes.

The typical structure of this kind of hearth may be observed more advantageously in a detail of a painting by Pieter de Hooch (see detail left) who worked in Delft during the years that Vermeer was active. 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.

A Party of Four Figures at a Table (detail)
Pieter de Hooch
1663-1665
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Together with the decorative mantelpiece, the two elegantly framed landscapes and the costly marbled floors, the presence of ells of gold-tooled leather indicate that the scene takes place in the grote zaal (great hall). This kind of wall covering must have been common in the homes of the rich who covered entire rooms (see detail left). The effect must have been so dazzling and was frequently depicted by interior painters of the time (see left). This kind of covering had a practical end as it served to protect the interior environment from the humidity of the gelid Dutch winters.

The grote zaal was habitually used by adults or when important visitors were present. The ells most likely correspond to the same seven ells described in Vermeer's death inventory of movable goods. They 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 decorative mantelpiece, the two elegantly framed landscapes and the costly marbled floors, the presence of seven ells of gold-tooled leather indicate that the scene takes place in the grote zaal (great hall). This kind of wall covering must have been common in the homes of the rich who covered entire rooms (see detail left). The effect must have been so dazzling and was frequently depicted by interior painters of the time (see left). This kind of covering had a practical end as it served to protect the interior environment from the humidity of the gelid Dutch winters.

The grote zaal was habitually used by adults or when important visitors were present. The ells most likely correspond to the same seven ells described in Vermeer's death inventory of movable goods. They 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 broom and discarded morning slippers left across the entrance. However, it is highly probable that they were readily understood by Vermeer's contemporaries. Perhaps they indicate the state of emotional abandon of the mistress who neglects her daily chores. 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. Samuel van Hoogstraten used both broom and slippers in an analogous see-through room painting which Vermeer may have used as a model for his own work. In any case, the broom, which has been painted darker than any other dark area of the painting, bars the viewer from advancing thereby reinforcing the privacy of the scene as it unfolds.

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 immensely 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, however, 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 seen draping from the still-life in The Art of Painting. It is difficult to make 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 sewing pillow that lie unattended may have been to indicate the anxieties of love which have kept the mistress from her domestic responsibilities. A similar hamper once appeared behind the standing maid in Vermeer's early Milkmaid. It was later painted out by the artist himself for unknown reasons.

From a technical point of view, the hamper is an amazing piece of abstraction whereby the complex optical world is reduced to a few essential forms. Its daring shorthand has induced some specialists to 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 principle 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. The money saved by avoiding to pay professional models is only too evident.

The hidden power of this work is set off exchange of glances between the maid and mistress. While the mistress clearly belongs to a socially elevated class, the maid's wry smile, drab work-dress and standing position overturn the mistress' psychological superiority.

The mistress' yellow satin morning jacket must be the one listed in Vermeer's death inventory of movable goods. This jacket or manteltge as it was called in Delft, protected women against the cold during the long Dutch winters as they performed household chores. Its loose fit permitted freedom of movement. Dutch costume expert Marieke de Winkel believes that fur trim was very likely not ermine as it is usually described, but cat or squirrel. The fine manteltge portrayed in the Love Letter belonged no doubt, to Catharina Bolnes, Vermeer's beloved wife who gave the artist 11 children during their 20 year marriage.

This kind of elegant gown was most likely made of caffa, a luxurious material made for upholstery and fine clothing. It is known that Vermeer's father worked in caffa (a silk-like material produced for tapestry and dress) and thus, some specialists have supposed that the artist's penchant for depicting this kind of material may be linked to his parental affection.

The gown's simple yet elegant block-like shape is a masterpiece of pictorial shorthand 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 tone differs subtly from the lemon tone of the fur-lined morning jacket. It 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 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.

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. Its sprightly and cheerful sound is comparable to the modern banjo although a good cittern sounds a bit like the virginals. 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 its peculiar sound and 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 had different and even contrasting meanings depending on the context in which they are portrayed. For example, a mirror, one of the most ubiquitous symbols in the history of Western painting, could symbolize vanity or self-knowledge, while pearls, one of the most characteristic props in Vermeer's work, are linked with vanity but also with virginity
a wide enough iconographic spectrum. In any case, it should be noted that slippers were usually worn in the bedroom. For some reason, 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 painting and theatre. One can almost feel a flicker of electricity that flows through their glances and the momentary reversal of the hierarchical position of their social roles. For a brief moment, it is the maid who seem to be in control and the mistress who cautiously pleas for help.

The figure of the maid, who has presumably just consigned a love letter, contrasts with that of the nervous, uncertain mistress. She stands tall and erect, her left arm akimbo, a pose usually reserved for men in Dutch art. 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 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. Vermeer most likely worked from a mathematical grid based on real more common tiles and adapted their patterns and colors to the necessities of each composition.

In the Love Letter, the 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 bluish cast which subtly activates the intense colors of the figure. 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.