THE MUSIC 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
for the virginals selected and preformed exclusively for the Essential Vermeer website by Joop Klaassen, contributor to the Stichting Clavecimbel Genootschap Nederland.
virginals music for the time of Vermeer
Almande De Symmerman very likely Almande The Carpenter (anon.) from The Susanne van Soldt Manuscript (1599)
Malle Symen ""Silly Simon"
(Jan Pzn. Sweelinck) from The Leningrad Manuscript (1646)
Courante Daphne The popular melody 'Daphne' as a French 'Courante' dance (anon.) also from The Leningrad Manuscript (1646)
* all three music files were kindly selected and performed for the Essential Vermeer website by Joop Klaassen, contributor to the Stichting Clavecimbel Genootschap Nederland.
The virginals are a kind of harpsichord. Mr Klaassen's Muselaer virginals were built by Louis van Emmerik, after the Ruckers virginals of 1611 in 'Het Vleeshuis,' a museum in Antwerp, Belgium. The muselaer virginals have the keyboard on the right, and they have a richer sound than the spinet virginals, which have the keyboard on the left. The virginals in Vermeer paintings are of the muselaer type.
For more information on Vermeer and the virginals, click here.
"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