The Music Lesson

(De muziekles)

c. 1662-1664
oil on canvas
28 7/8 x 25 3/8 in. (73.3 x 64.5 cm.)
The Royal Collection, Buckingham Palace

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Comparing the girl with her reflection we can notice that the back of her head, directly seen, is more conventionally perceived, more recognizable, perhaps more touching, her reflected face, its detail dissolved, its humanity suspended in light, has a deeper kind of completeness. The face is reflected not only in the mirror but also in the painter's temperament. For the first time we have the sense that he has a use, however oblique, for the whole of human appearance.

Lawrence Gowing, Vermeer, 1952

signed lower picture frame at right IVMeer (IVM in monogram)

c. 1662-1664 - Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Vermeer: The Complete Works, New York, 1997)

c. 1662-1663
Walter Liedtke Vermeer: The Complete Paintings, New York, 2008)

The plain-weave linen support has a thread count of 15 x 14 per cm2. The original tacking edges have been removed. Cusping occurs on all sides, more pronounced along top and bottom edges. The canvas has been lined.

The light brownish gray ground contains lead white, chalk, and a little umber, with aggregates of lead white particles. The paint is thinly and smoothly applied although some texture is present, as on the nearest edge of the bass viol, which stands out due to curling impasto.

The bottom half of the painting has a strong blue cast. The dark tiles in the foreground are blue while those further back in the composition are dark gray and contain no blue pigment. The shadow of the carpet on the table in the right foreground is dominated by a bright blue, which may be discolored. A pinhole with which Vermeer marked the vanishing point of the composition is visible in the paint layer.

* 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 Claesz van Ruijven, Delft (d. 1674);
  • (?) his widow, Maria de Knuijt, Delft (d. 1681);
  • (?) their daughter, Magdalena van Ruijven, Delft (d. 1682);
  • (?) her widower, Jacob Abrahamsz Dissius (d. 1695);
  • Dissius sale, Amsterdam, 16 May 1696, no. 6;
  • Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, Amsterdam/The Hague (1718), Venice (1741);
  • his widow, Angela Carriera, Venice (1741-42);
  • Joseph Smith, Venice and Mogliano (1742-62);
  • King Georg III, Windsor Castle, as by Frans van Mieris, (1762 acquired with the Smith Collection);
  • since 1762 Royal Collection, Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace (inv. 109).

exhibitions

The Chess Players
Cornelis de Man
1670
97.5 x 85 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary

The quintessential, pristine Dutch interior of the Music Lesson scarcely reflects Vermeer's personal circumstances and may have been largely contrived. It is a well known fact that the luxury objects such as carpets, marble flooring, silver trays and musical instruments all which appear in the same room were seldom found in any but the wealthiest homes. Oppositely, none of common household objects listed in the artist's posthumous inventory such as cradles, beds and shabby furniture ever upset Vermeer's perfect compositions. Genre interior artists like Vermeer were selective in what they painted.

In general, the density of furnishings in Dutch homes must have been much higher than what ever appeared in Vermeer's paintings (see image left). Vermeer's uncluttered and perfectly ordered spaces were deliberately set up and painted in order to convey an idea of harmony and peace of refined and elegant living that would have appealed to the married couples who hung them in their homes. They are closer to cinematic mise-en-scène than to snapshots of real-life circumstances.

Thus, Vermeer might qualify as a metteur en scène, "putter on scene," (the French title given to a film director), who carefully arranges the sets, props, actors, costumes, and lighting on his set.

The relationship between music and love as a theme was frequently explored by Dutch 17th-century painters with varying shades of meaning. In The Music Lesson, Vermeer alludes metaphorically to the harmony of two souls in love, suggested by the unattended bass viol on the floor before the couple. The juxtaposition of the two instruments, the virginal and the bass viol, refers to an emblem by Jacob Cats, "Quid Non Sentit Amor" that describes how the sound of one instrument resonates on the other just as two hearts can exist harmoniously even if separated.

Jesuit Church on the Oude Langendijk
(pen and ink drawing)
Abraham Rademaker
Gemeentearchief, Delft

Although much has been theorized about Vermeer's working methods in conjunction with the room(s) in which he worked, we do not know in how many different rooms he worked in, or even the house in which his studio was located. Informed specialists believe that Vermeer worked in at least three different environments during his twenty-year career. What is certain is that he did not work in the modest circumstances in which artists such as Rembrandt and Adriaen van Ostade enjoyed portraying themselves.

It has been reasonably hypothesized that Vermeer worked in his own home. From 1660, we know that Vermeer was living with his mother-in-law, Maria Thins on Oude Langendijk, directly across his father's inn Mechelen on the Market Square in the center of Delft. Many historians believe that the Thins house is pictured on an 18th-century drawing of a Jesuit church on Oude Langendijk by Abraham Rademaker (Montias believes that the Thins/Vermeer house is the furthest one to the right but may also be one or two houses over to the right, just outside the drawing). What we can deduce from this drawing is a series of modest houses, each one having a ground floor, an upstairs floor, some with an extra floor and an attic.

The Music Lesson provides a very good idea of how Vermeer's studio was structured.

Title page of Sinne- en minnebeelden

Art historians have called attention to emblematic literature as a source for divining hidden meaning in Dutch genre painting. In the present work, an emblem by Jacob Cats, "Quid Non Sentit Amor," has often been called into play.

Although Jacob Cats was hardly known outside of Holland, among his own people for nearly two centuries he enjoyed an enormous popularity. His diffuseness and the antiquated character of his matter and diction, have, however, come to be regarded as difficulties in the way of study, and he is more renowned than read.

Dutch writer of emblem books and didactic verse whose place in the affections of his countrymen is shown by his nickname, "Father Cats."

Cats took his doctor's degree in law at Orléans, practiced at The Hague, and, after visits to Oxford and Cambridge, settled in Zeeland, where he accumulated wealth by land reclamation. Becoming a magistrate, he was successively pensionary of Middelburg and Dordrecht and, from 1636 to 1651, grand pensionary of Holland. He took part in diplomatic missions to England in 1627 to Charles I and in 1651-52, unsuccessfully, to Cromwell. His background gave him an international outlook, and he was in sympathy with many of the English Puritan writers.

Although Cats was a scholar and diplomat, he was primarily a writer of poetic emblem books, a type of literature popular in the 17th century that consisted of woodcuts or engravings accompanied by verses pointing a moral. These books offered provocative texts and intriguing images that educated young readers in the subjects of love, such as choosing one's partner, marital fidelity and the possible pangs of love. He used this form to express the major ethical concerns of early Dutch Calvinists, especially those dealing with love and marriage. By being the first to combine emblem literature with love poetry, and by his skill as a storyteller, he achieved enormous popularity. The sources on which he draws are chiefly the Bible and the Classics and occasionally Boccaccio and Cervantes.

His first book, Sinne- en minnebeelden (1618; "Portraits of Morality and Love"), contained engravings with text in Dutch, Latin, and French. Each picture has a threefold interpretation, expressing what were for Cats the three elements of human life: love, society, and religion. Perhaps his most famous emblem book is Spiegel van den ouden ende nieuwen tijdt (1632; "Mirror of Old and New Times"), many quotations from which have become household sayings. It is written in a more homely style than his earlier works, in popular rather than classical Dutch. Two other works, Houwelyk (1625; "Marriage") and Trou-ringh (1637; "Wedding Ring") are rhymed dissertations on marriage and conjugal fidelity. In one of his last books, Ouderdom, buyten-leven en hof-gedachten (1655; "Old Age, Country Life, and Garden Thoughts"), Cats wrote movingly about old age.

Most Flemish virginals had their soundboards painted with flowers, fruit, birds, caterpillars, moths and even cooked prawns, all within blue scalloped borders and intricate blue arabesques. Natural keys were normally covered in bone, and sharps were of oak or, less commonly, chestnut. The case exteriors were usually marbled like the ones in Vermeer's Lady Standing at the Virginals and Lady Seated at the Virginals, while the inside was decorated with elaborate block-printed papers. Occasionally the inside of the lid bore a decorative scene; more often it was covered with block-printed papers embellished with a Latin motto, usually connected with morality or music.

Some typical mottos include:
SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MVNDI (Thus passes the glory of the world)
MVSICA DVLCE LABORVM LEVAMEN (Sweet music is the solace of labour)
MVSICA DONVM DEI (Music is the gift of God)

The Motto on the virginals in Vermeer's Music Lesson reads:
MVSICA LETITIAE CO[ME]S MEDICINA DOLOR[VM]
(Music is the companion of joy, balm for sorrow)

By the time Vermeer painted the Music Lesson he was in full command of the painting medium. He had learned to exploit every stylistic and technical component tin order o enhance the meaning of his images, including linear perspective, the most formidable tool for creating an illusionist image.

Perspective was held in high esteem since it enabled the artist to deceive the viewer into believing that the painted scenes were real, one of the prime concerns of Dutch realism. One of the few surviving accounts of Vermeer's art by a contemporary signaled his works as "perspectives." Perspective was also important because it provided the mathematical basis for painting a fact which could itself elevate its traditional lowly hierarchical status from the Mechanical Arts to the Liberal Arts.

In ancient times, the Liberal Arts were those considered to be fitting pursuits for free and noble citizens, being above the labor of handicrafts. Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy and Music represented the scientific Liberal Arts because they were based on mathematics. Grammar, Dialectic and Rhetoric represented the rational side because they dealt with language. Both painting and sculpture on the other hand were classed among the mechanical arts because they required manual labor.

Vermeer used perspective not only to create depth but to clarify his message. In the present work, if we trace the orthogonals of the perspectival system, we find that they lead the eye to the spiritual heart of the painting, the standing young musician.

Painting conservators have recently discovered that instead of the complicated mathematical calculations necessary to build a coherent perspective on a flat surface of a painting, Vermeer availed himself of an ingenious, yet devilishly practical technique evidently in common usage among Dutch artists who prized perspective in their art. X-ray examinations of Vermeer's extant paintings have proved that in a number of works with complicated perspective problems, there is a tiny hole (later filled in with paint) which in every case coincides exactly to the perspective's vanishing point. In this hole was once inserted a pin (most likely to a wood panel temporarily fastened to the back of the canvas) to which a string was attached. By rubbing chalk on the string, the painter could pull it taught and with a snap produce a perfectly straight orthogonal on the surface of the canvas which could then be traced. During the later stages of the painting process, the complicated perspective of the tiles could be easily verified by pulling the string straight just above the surface of the canvas.

"A Toye" [1.30 MB]
Giles Farnaby (c. 1563-1640)

from: Ancient Instruments – Tuxedo (various artists)
http://www.emusic.com/album/10589/10589854.html

The virginal (or virginals), together with the harpsichord, has its origin probably in the medieval psaltery with a keyboard applied, to be able to play polyphonic music (i.e. melody with accompanying chords). It is mentioned for the first time c. 1460 in a treatise by Paulus Paulirinus of Prague. Although limited in its tonal resources, the virginal occupied a crucial position in the musical life in the 16th and 17th centuries as it was smaller, simpler and cheaper than the harpsichord which is rather rarely represented in paintings, drawings etc.

The main center of virginal- and keyboard making in general was undoubtedly Antwerp/Flanders, with the renowned families of Ruckers and Couchet. Italy was the second center, and since King Henry's VIII's purchase of five virginals it enjoyed considerable appreciation in England. Until the 18th century the virginal remained in use both as solo instrument, even in private circles of music making, as well as for accompaniment of the singing voice or melodic instruments, like the viola da gamba.

The virginal usually appears with a rectangular case, although polygon forms in various sizes were built as well. The metal strings, here only in single choir, runs roughly parallel to the keyboard. They are plucked by plectra mounted on jacks. The jacks (one for each key) are arranged in pairs and placed along a line running from the front of the instrument at the left to the back at the right. They pluck in opposite directions, so that the pairs of jacks are separated by closely spaced pairs of strings. Each pair of jacks is usually served by a single slot in the soundboard, together with another slot below in a thin guide above the keys. Leather on the soundboard and lower guide provides a quiet bearing surface for the jacks.

The typical Flemish "muselaar" type (probably invented by Hans Ruckers) has the keyboard to the right side, their strings plucked at a point near the centre for virtually their entire range, producing a powerful, flute-like tone. Though since the jacks and keys for the left hand are inevitably placed in the middle of the instrument's soundboard, any mechanical noise from these is amplified and the central plucking point in the bass strings makes repetition difficult because the motion of the still-sounding string interferes with the ability of the plectrum to connect again. Thus the muselar is better suited to chord — and melody-music without complex bass parts.

The spinet virginal has its keyboard placed off-centre to the left. The jacks run in a line close to the left-hand bridge; therefore the point at which the jacks pluck the strings is close to the mid-point in the treble and well away towards the left end in the bass. Thus the timbre of the spinet gradually changes from flute-like in the treble to reedy in the bass.

"Zy blinckt, en doet al blincken"
engraving from P. C. Hooft
Emblemata Amatoria, 1611

Although not all of Vermeer's paintings make use of symbolism, literary references and background paintings to sharpen the focus of the theme of his compositions, The Music Lesson has been linked to multiple sources.

Vermeer expert Arthur Wheelock cites an emblem entitled "Zy blinckt, en doet al blincken" (it shines and makes everything shine) drawn from P. C. Hooft's Emblemata Amatoria as a very probable connection.

"Hooft's emblem contains two vignettes, Cupid holding a mirror reflecting sunrays in the foreground, and a man standing near a woman playing a keyboard instrument in the background. The accompanying verses explain that just as a mirror reflects the sunlight it receives, so does love reflect its source in the beloved. What love one possesses comes not from oneself, but from the beloved. Although the image of Cupid with the mirror depicts quite literally the message of Hooft's verses, the figures in the background - the man looking with rapt attention at his beloved, whose music has so moved him - expand upon them metaphorically. The compositional relationships between the emblem and the Music Lesson suggest that Vermeer had a similar concept in mind when conceiving his work. Not only do the figures in the background of the emblem bear a striking resemblance to those in the Music Lesson, the emphasis on the mirror in the emblem parallels the prominence given to the woman's reflection in the mirror in Vermeer's painting."

In representational painting, there exist two basic kinds of shadows, those attached, so to speak, to the objects and those projected by the objects. Attached shadows lie directly on the objects by whose shape, spatial orientation and distance from the light source they are created. Perceptually, attached shadows and projected shadows are quite different. The attached shadow is sensed as an integral part of the object, so much that in practical experience it is generally not noted. A cast shadow, instead, is read as an imposition or interference by one object on another. One of the foremost difficulties of the painter is to determine the color and paint quality for rendering them both.

A cast shadow not only defines more accurately the position of a given object in space, it creates shapes and forms of their own which may be transformed into compositional elements. Vermeer seems to have been particularly interested in cast shadows and art specialists have noted that their shapes are frequently altered to suit the artist's compositional goals.

In the Music Lesson, a shadow is projected from the window down towards the tiled floor, its flow being slightly interrupted by the left-hand corner of the standing virginal. The resulting diagonal lines play a vital part in bonding the right-hand side of the composition, with its accumulation of objects, and the empty left-hand side.

In the same painting we find for the first time in Vermeer's oeuvre evidence of another phenomenon which reveals the artist's powers of observation and his interest in cast shadow: the double shadow of the ebony-framed mirror. The wider, external shadow is caused by the acute angle of incoming light as it enters from the window nearer to the background wall. But it is partially weakened, and here the double shadow appears, because the light from the middle window shines on part of the original shadow. The same phenomenon appears on the shadows cast by the right-hand lid of the virginal. Similar double shadows can be seen in the Concert and A Lady Standing at the Virginal.

Painters were advised to avoid double shadows since they might confuse the viewer.