The Essential Vermeer Glossary: D-I

DEAD-COLOR

A term (in Dutch dood-verf) which was once used for underpainting, a monochrome version of the final painting intended to initially fix the composition, give volume and substance to the forms, and distribute darks and lights in order to create the effect of illumination. The lack of color probably explains the word "dead" in the term dead painting. In the17th c. dead-coloring appears in various forms.

DRAWING

Pencil, pen, ink, charcoal or other similar mediums on paper or other support, tending toward a linear quality rather than mass, and also with a tendency toward black-and-white, rather than color.

It seems somewhat surprising that not even a single preparatory or finished drawing by Vermeer has survived. One would expect that such precisely balanced compositions and problematic perspectives could be most efficiently resolved through preparatory drawings which would allow the artist to easily correct any errors. There were many ways to transfer drawings efficiently and accurately to canvas.

Only scant traces have remained of the initial drawing methods on his canvas although evidence seems to suggest that it was deliberate and controlled. It was once thought that Vermeer revealed some of his own working procedures, including his drawing methods, in the Art of Painting. On a toned canvas the artists represented in Vermeer's picture has laid in the contours of the model in white paint or chalk and has begun to paint in various shades of blue the laurel leaves. However, there exist many discrepancies between real working habits seen in representations of painters' studios of seventeenth-century and those illustrated in the Art of Painting. While some of the indications given by the Art of Painting of the painter's technique may be factual, others may have a more symbolic or decorative function and in any case they do not seem to correspond closely to what were most likely Vermeer's own methods.

EMBLEM

A picture associated with a motto, usually moralizing in tone. An example is a popular print showing King Midas, unable to eat because his touch turns everything to gold, accompanied by the words "both rich and poor." For the new subject matter of seventeenth-century realism - landscape, still-life and genre - an established metaphorical tradition such as the Bible and classical literature used in history painting was lacking. "To make up for it, artists started to make use of the popular emblematical literature. The first emblems were published in Italy in the early 16th c.. Their composition was a literary genre among humanists: by finding apt combinations of image and text they could show off their metaphorical inventiveness and wit. The genre spread quickly and became immensely popular. In Holland it was soon employed by Calvinist moralists like Johan de Brune who realized the didactic value of a concrete image explained by concise text."¹

The Dutch were exceptionally literate and religious and moral commitment were central to Dutch literature. It is said that the works of the didactic poet Jacob Cats were in every Dutch home, alongside the Bible. Essentially, the aim of the emblem was to make morality more attractive. Emblematic meanings as well as motifs derived from emblem books frequently appear in Dutch paintings. However, it must be remembered that even though connections between emblem books and painting are generally accepted, there exist no text of the period which specifically associates paintings with didactic intention.

Scholars have related various paintings of Vermeer to existing prints in contemporary emblem books which were accompanied by mottoes. While much knowledge has been certainly gained by investigating these associations, important questions remain unanswered. One example of the difficulty in interpreting emblematic meaning may seen in the Woman Standing at a Virginal. In 1967, Eddy de Jong ("On Balance" in Vermeer Studies , 1998) proposed an interpretation of the picture in relation to one such emblem with the motto" A lover ought to love only one" in Otto van Veen's emblem book of 1608, Amorum Emblemata. In Vermeer's picture, a painting representing a Cupid holds aloft a card can be closely related to Van Veen's print.

However in the Van Veen's print the Cupid stands with one foot on another card with multiple numbers which is missing in Vermeer's representation. De Jongh wrote: "Although the card of the painted amor is blank and the card with the other ciphers is missing is itself missing, there can be no doubt that Vermeer had been inspired by the very same notion when he painted the woman at the virginal." However, about 20 years later De Jongh readdressed the issue: "I restate the hypothesis that Vermeer was thinking of Van Veen's meaning when he conceived his painting. This hypothesis, however, does not solve very much. For even if the emblematic meaning of any passage may be correctly identified, the crucial question is: how did the painter intend the inserted moral to function?"²

ENGRAVING and ETCHING

Woodcut, engraving and etching were the main methods of making prints before the invention of photography. To make an engraving, a plate, usually of copper, is cut with a burin (a sharp gouging tool). The plate is put in a press and ink rolled onto it. The ink is retained in the cuts and transferred to the paper.

Some of the paintings, such as the Netherlandish landscape, are connected with specific engravings by other artists.
The advantage of etching over engraving is that the lines can be made with something of the freedom of drawing

Not even a single engraving, etching or even drawing by Vermeer's hand have survived nor does there exist any historical evidence that they had existed

FIGURATIVE

The term "figurative" is often used simply to mean that an image contains recognizable images (i.e., that it is not abstract or non-objective). Since this usage does not distinguish between literal and figurative, it is considerably less precise.

FIGURE/GROUND

The relationship of the picture surface (ground) to the images on the picture plane (figure). The figure is the space occupied by forms (e.g., a person in a portrait) (also known as the 'positive' space); the ground is the "empty" or unoccupied space around the person in the portrait (also known as the 'negative' space) The ground is also commonly called the 'background.' In art since the early 20th century, this division of the picture plane has been seriously challenged, to the point where there is not a distinction of figure/ground, but rather one continuous surface and space, with no 'positive' or 'negative' space, just one interwoven space.

Perhaps Vermeer's awareness of both the formal and expressive power of the relationship between figure and ground, positive and negative shape, has no equal in European easel painting. His sensitivity towards pictorial design is not simply limited to the placements of objects in relation of one to another. In the single-figure paintings of the mid 1660s he precisely determines the form of negative shapes which surround the standing women in order to restrict any sense of physical movement. The figures are imbued with a sense of stability and permanence which comparative genre painters were rarely even aware of. What perhaps is even more astounding is that the attention which he affords to the formal relationship of figure ground never feels contrived nor does it interfere with the naturalistic reading of the painting.

Lawrence Gowing's certainly had the play of negative and positive shapes in mind when he wrote: "Nothing else evokes the impression, certainly no printed reproduction, nothing but the canvas itself: we see, large and plain, a mosaic of shapes which bear equally on one another. They are clasped together by their nature, holding each other to every other in its natural embrace. We see a surface which has the absolute embedded flatness of inlay, of tarsia. And in an instant we recognize its shapes as emblems which carry in their stillness the force of the real world."

FIJNSCHILERS

Traditions emerged from the specific ways in which painters worked in Leiden, Amsterdam, Haarlem and The Hague and which other artists then emulated. The Dutch word for painter meaning literally "fine painter." The closest equivalent term in English is probably "fine artist." These developed into what became known as schools. An excellent example is that of the fijnschilders in Leiden. The earliest representative of this school is Gerard Dou (1613-1675). Dou painted in the smooth, precise style that his teacher Rembrandt had employed in his Leiden years. Unlike Rembrandt, however, Dou remained loyal to this exquisite manner of painting. Thanks to influential pupils such as Quirijn Brekelenkamp, Gabriel Metsu, Godfried Schalcken and Frans van Mieris, this polished style of painting became a specialty of Leiden artists.

In the style of the fijnschilders — minutely proportioned subjects with bright colors, a shiny finish, and precise attention to detail —Van Mieris painted on wood or copper panels rarely larger than fifteen square inches. He represented common incidents in the lives of the working class as well as the habits and customs of the wealthy. His paintings were highly acclaimed in his lifetime and earned Van Mieris a great deal of money. Unfortunately, he wasted his fortune through alcoholism and poor management of his finances. Although contemporaries recognized Van Mieris as one of the leading Dutch artists of the 1600s, his paintings fell into relative obscurity in the 1700s. The paintings of Gerard Dou and his pupils are minutely and precisely painted. They used thin brushes and applied their paints in numerous, successive layers. The result was a polished surface, so smooth that it seemed almost enameled: no brushstrokes are visible. The Leiden fijnschilders employed sharp contrasts of light and dark, often placing their subjects in a vaulted context.

Although Vermeer was certainly influenced by the themes and compositions of the fijnschilders, his concept of rendering is fundamentally divergent from theirs. Vermeer never seem to have been lured by the microscopic detail which had made the fijnschilders work prized throughout Europe. His stark strictly organized interiors contrast with the essentially picturesque character Dou's and Van Mieris' work and seem almost barren in comparison. Although Vermeer shares their interest in the representation of texture and the activity of light, he subtly suggests rather than describes those qualities. Moreover, Vermeer's use narrative is less precise leaving room for the observer's imagination to come into play. Arthur Wheelock correctly points out that Vermeer's painting are essentially "poetic" rather than "narrative."

FLOWER PAINTING

A rising interest in botany and a passion for flowers led to an increase in painted floral still-lifes at the end of the 1500s in both the Netherlands and Germany. Bosschaert was the first great Dutch specialist in fruit and flower painting and the head of a family of artists. He established a tradition that influenced an entire generation of fruit and flower painters in the Netherlands.

Not even a single flower, quintessential symbol of the Netherlands, appears in Vermeer's oeuvre.

FOCAL POINT

In two-dimensional images, the center of interest visually and/or subject-wise; tends to be used more in traditional, representational art than in modern and contemporary art, where the picture surface (picture plane) tends to have more of an overall importance, rather than one important area.

FOREGROUND

The area of the picture space nearest to the viewer, immediately behind the picture plane, is known as the foreground. An understanding of perspective developed in the early 15th century allowing painters to divide space behind the picture plane into foreground, middleground and background.

In the foreground the figures and objects appear larger than those in the middle- or background because of their apparent proximity. They are painted with greater detail than things farther away, since only at close range would such detail be visible.

Lawrence Gowing (Vermeer, 1950) was perhaps the first to note the importance of Vermeer's dramatic play between foreground and background elements. "In only three of the twenty-six interiors that we have is the space between the painter and the sitter at all uninterrupted. In five of the others passage is considerably encumbered, in eight more the heavy objects interposed amount to something like a barrier and in the remaining ten they are veritable fortifications."

FORESHORTENING

The diminishing of certain dimensions of an object or figure in order to depict it in a correct spatial relationship. In realistic depiction, foreshortening is necessary because although lines and planes that are perpendicular to the observer's line of vision (central visual ray), and the extremities of which are equidistant from the eye, will be seen at their full size, when they are revolved away from the observer they will seem increasingly shorter. Thus for example, a figure's arm outstretched toward the observer must be foreshortened--the dimension of lines, contours and angles adjusted--in order that it not appear hugely out of proportion. The term foreshortening is applied to the depiction of a single object, figure or part of an object or figure, whereas the term perspective refers to the depiction of an entire scene.

Dutch painters such as Rembrandt and Frans Hals often took advantage of the dramatic effect of foreshortening to enliven the otherwise static poses of their portraits. Vermeer too applied foreshortening, with various degrees of success, in his own works although one feels he is not entirely comfortable with its implementation.

One of the most successful examples of foreshortening in Vermeer's work can be, oddly enough , in one of his first compositions, Christ in the House of Martha and Mary. The foreshortening of Mary's slightly tilted head is so effortlessly achieved that it comes to a surprise see how the artist seems to struggle with the problem of the milkmaid's arm (The Milkmaid) painted some years later. Particularly idiosyncratic treatments of foreshortening can be seen in the artist's bulbous hand in the Art of Painting and the writing hand of the mistress in Woman Writing a Letter with Her Maid. More conventional solutions can be observed in The Geographer and Woman Holding A Water Pitcher.

FORM

The constituent elements of a work of art independent of their meaning (e.g., the co lour, composition, medium or size of a flag, rather than its emotional or national significance). Formal elements are primary features which are not a matter of semantic significance - including co lour, dimensions, line, mass, medium, scale, shape, space, texture, value, and their corollaries - and secondary features which are the relations of the primary features with one another - including balance, contrast, dominance, harmony, movement, proportion, proximity, rhythm, similarity, unity, and variety.

In painting, line and form are closely related. The division between the two is often blurred, depending upon how the painter defines each. While line is mainly used to define edges, whether in two dimensions or three, form defines the shape of an object as a whole, or the shape of regions within it.

FUGITIVE COLORS

Pigment or dye colors that fade when exposed to light.

It is believed that the curious bluish tone of the foliage in The Little Street is due to the fact that the yellow lake, which mixed together with a blue original created the proper green tone, has faded with time. One of the names given to a common yellow lake was "schijtgeel", weld or fading yellow as it is called. As almost every other painters of the time, Vermeer used, red madder, a ruby red pigment noted for its brilliancy and transparency, but fugitive when applied in very thin layers. Madder is an organic pigment derived from the roots of the madder plant. Vermeer glazed (see glaze - glazing and Vermeer's palette for an in-depth study of artist's pigments) . The rather dull appearance of some of the flesh tones in Vermeer's faces may be due to the fact that red madder, has faded leaving the white/yellow mixture to dominate.

Another example of a glaze which has in time faded in Vermeer's painting can be found in the Girl with a Pearl Earring. Presently, the picture's background appears uneven and spotted. During the 1994-1995 restoration it became clear that this appearance had been caused by the degraded composition of a peculiar glaze used by Vermeer. It was ascertained that the background was originally meant to have a deep greenish tone which can no longer been seen. Vermeer had glazed a very transparent layer of indigo mixed with weld over the dark black underpainting. Indigo and weld are both pigments of organic origin. Indigo is deep blue dyestuff derived from the indigo plant, weld is a natural yellow dyestuff obtained from the flowers of the wouw or woude plant as it was called in Dutch. Mixed together with a rich binding medium (linseed oil) they form a transparent greenish tone. Weld was widely used for dying silk since it was one of the purest and yellow shades available but was equally valuable to the artist. It seems that Vermeer used indigo only rarely.

GENRE

This is a French 19th-century term used in an art-historical context to describe a type of subject matter for painting. Such pictures were collected in the Netherlands in the 17th century and many artists specialized in their production. They showed both peasant life (as in the work of Adriaen Brouwer, Adriaen van Ostade and David Teniers) and bourgeois urban life (as in Ter Borch, Metsu and Vermeer). "Contemporary writers, who must have witnessed the spectacular rise of genre, did not find a name for it - which testifies the curious inability of classical theory to deal with a new phenomena when it does not fit into the High Tradition. Only later, when thought was no longer dominated by classical theory, did the word genre come into use; it was probably the eighteenth-century writer and critic Denis Diderot who introduced the word - to designate the paintings of his contemporaries Chardin and Grueze. Earlier writers just called the pictures after what they saw represented: a merry company, a brothel, a peasant scene, or whatever - and invariably classified them as second-rate art."³

"Genre paintings generally present a situation, which through the introduction of key symbols, is reversed into a moral example."⁴ "Unlike history painting, a genre picture does not generally refer to a written text. Its relation...is to a different area - to the popular, often crude and simplistic, metaphorical interpretation of the world. Genre pictures, therefore, have a different structure from history painting, and that structure is one of their major characteristics. "⁵ Thus the moral example presented in genre painting was usually more accessible to ordinary people. This comprehensibility was greatly enhanced by the fact that they were often presented in context of daily life that the public could easily recognize.

During the 17th century, genre paintings were occasionally referred to by the general term beeldeken— meaning “painting with little figures”—but were more commonly categorized according to their specific subject matter. Coortegardjes, for example, portray soldiers at rest or play, while conversaties feature fashionable young men and women eating, drinking and playing musical instruments together. In addition to these popular subjects, genre paintings also frequently depict taverns, kitchens, open-air markets, and festive occasions such as weddings, births, or holidays.

Most scholars believe that Vermeer derived the majority of his themes and compositions from existing genre models. Lawrence Gowing, the author of one of the most penetrating studies of the artist (Vermeer, London, 1952 and 1970), clearly states: "it would be hard to find a theme of any boldness in his work which is not based on a precedent; inquiry multiplies the evidence that the majority of his figure motifs were directly derivative." Albert Blankert as well, has furnished ample evidence of the fact that Vermeer derived most of his genre subjects from well-established iconographic traditions. Although Vermeer seems to have systematically drew upon fellow genre painters such as Gerard ter Borch, Frans van Mieris, Gerard Dou , his closest ties are with Pieter De Hooch.

Vermeer was the only genre painter who was able to confer the moral seriousness and sense of dignity associated with history painting. Perhaps he had become aware that genre painting could adequately replace history painting, for in composition and design they posed many the same problems.

GESTURE/GESTURAL

The concept of gesture in drawing or painting is twofold: it describes the visible characteristics of the action of a figure; and it embodies the intangible "essence" of a figure or object. The action line of a figure is often a graphic undulating line, which follows the movement of the entire body of the figure being drawn or painted. The term gestural is an extension of this idea to describe a type of painting which is characterized by brushstrokes with a gestural quality, that is, flowing, curved, undulating lines or forms.

Some great painters of Vermeer's time, including Rembrandt, Velasquez and Hals brought brushwork to a state of virtuosity which has, perhaps, never since been rivaled. Although each of these painters possessed a deeply personal manner of handling the artist's brush, in their later years they achieved an analogous level of spontaneity but at the same time, the maintained an absolute command pictorial result. Their brushwork seems to evoke in the observer's body the physical presence of the form and gesture of their paintings' subjects well as their optical appearance. "...our reception of these lines and brushstrokes...is influenced by the fact that the movements we observe are... echoed in our own bodies in the sense that we latently participate in these movements. "⁶ However, these masters' gestural brushwork, whose movements seems to be< almost unconsciously executed, were acquired through years of great self-discipline and intensive practice in the first part of their careers, years in which in which they sought a highly finished rendering of a more conventional kind.

In comparison to the three artists mentioned, Vermeer cannot be said to have ever explored the venue of gesture brushwork, even in his earlier works where his brush work is at its loosest. Although his brush work is far more evident than the brushwork of the fijnschilders with whom he shared many compositional, representational and thematic concerns, one never senses that the function of Vermeer's brush works is expressive or even personal in character. Rather than reflecting emotional states of the artist, Vermeer's brushwork aims at suggesting (rather than describing) visual and textural qualities of what is being represented. In his later years, he developed a curious calligraphic style which although at times freeing itself from a purely descriptive function, never really assumes the quality of spontaneous gesture.

Vermeer's very lack of overt gestural expressiveness has been interpreted by Lawrence Gowing, and others, as inversely expressive.

"The lack of facility in dealing with human issues, which emerges side by side with, the elemental clarity of vision which is its counterpart, is the fundamental factor in the formation of his style. The lack itself is a common one. Vermeer' s distinction is that, with the passivity characteristic of his thought, he accepted this part of his nature as a basis of the expressive content of his style. The instinctive seriousness of his assent to the requirements of his temperament is the sign of his genius. The lack of facility corresponds to a depth of feeling; his diffidence in dealing with the aspect of humanity is the measure of the meaning, which he attaches to it. The virtue in an artist is often like a bare nerve; sensitiveness may not only qualify but disable. In this Vermeer's development reveals, in microcosm, a situation in which more than one later painter has found himself."

GLAZE / GLAZING

Glazing was a technique employed by painters since the invention of oil painting. Although in theory it is very simple, in practice glazing can be a very complex undertaking. In the simplest terms, glazing consists in brushing a transparent layer of paint over another thoroughly dried layer of opaque paint. The underpainting, as the dried layer is usually called, is usually monochromatic but it may also contain color. The two layers of paint are not physically but optically mixed. Glazing is similar to placing a sheet of colored acetate over a monochrome photograph. The paint used to glaze must be diluted by an oil to achieve the correct fluidity for brushing. Glazing creates a unique "shine through" stained glass effect that is not obtainable by direct mixture of paint.

According to Max Doerner, (The Materials of the Artist and Their Use in Painting, 1934) Rembrandt had extensively employed glazing. Doerner assumed that Rembrandt first painted a monochrome underpainting which served as a sort of "pictorial skeleton" on which imposed numerous transparent glazes to determine the final effect of the painting. Doener's theory had been so popular as to give birth to a "glazing myth" which has survived till today. Through modern scientific analysis, however, it has now been demonstrated that Rembrandt worked principally with opaque and semi-opaque layers of paint glazing only in relatively restricted areas according to general usage.

Today there are various informative studies which discuss glazing in Vermeer's paintings. However, some of them probably tend to overstate Vermeer's use of glazing and do not distinguish between glazing used as a corrective measure - very light layer of paint meant to alter only slightly the underlying paint layer which for one reason or another had not come up to the painter's original expectations - and true glazing which, instead, aims to create a very specific and otherwise unachievable pictorial effect. This difference might not seem a fundamental one but the idea that Vermeer built up his paintings in a series of successive glazes is incorrect. An oil painting cannot be created by a series of successive glazes as if they were water color washes. The bulk of painting in the 17th c. was executed with opaque and semi-opaque layers of pigment.

An excellent, yet conventional, use of glazing may be observed in Vermeer' Girl with a Red Hat. The plumed hat was first modeled in opaque vermilion ( an opaque red with a orange overtone) and black. It was then glazed with red madder ( a very transparent ruby red derived from the madder plant) which gives the hat its typical glowing red.

GRISAILLE

A grisaille is a painting which has been executed in monochrome (i.e. one color) or in a very limited range of color, but in which the forms are defined by variations of tone. Grisaille painting was particularly popular for the outsides of the shutters of polyptychs in Northern Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries.

GROUND

Coating material, usually white, applied to a support to make it ready for painting .After the sized canvas was dry, it was sanded with a pumice stone and grounded. Grounding, or priming as it is usually called today, provides the final surface suitable for painting. Grounding must produce a smooth surface that can be easily painted upon, it must be hard but not brittle (which causes cracking) and last of all it must be porous enough to allow the oil paint to adhere permanently but not too absorbent as to suck out the oil from the layers of oil paint and cause it to detach. Painters were aware that the tone of the ground strongly influences the perception of the tone and hue of the pigments which were applied to it. Thus, the final overall tone of the picture was effected, especially in the shadows where thin layers of transparent paint were generally employed. Dark toned canvases greatly aid the rendering of shadowed areas but require repeated layers of lighter paint to represent the strongly illuminated areas.

Vermeer generally used light colored grounds composed of chalk (a filler), linseed oil, white-lead and various combinations of coloring pigments. For example, the ground of the Woman Holding a Balance contains chalk, white-lead, black and an earth pigment, most likely brown umber. The ground mixture was applied with a palette knife in one or two layer. The grounded canvas had a warm buff tone that can be seen in various areas of the painting where little or no paint was applied. Although it would seem that Vermeer prepared his canvas in the conventional manner, it has been recently advanced that he may have purchased commercially prepared canvases.

GUARD ROOM SCENE - COORTEGARDJE

A guard room scene—a coortegardje—is a type of genre painting that depicts soldiers drinking, resting and gambling. Coortegardje enjoyed their greatest popularity during the 1620s and 1630s, perhaps as a result of Dutch preoccupation with the ongoing war with Spain. Perhaps Gerard Terborch created the most refined versions of guard room scenes.

GIULD - GUILD OF SAINT LUKE

Guilds were associations of people engaged in the same trade or business. In Italy they were known as Arti, and it was necessary to belong to one to obtain work in any town. The guilds had their own chapels and in their devotional activities they often resembled confraternities. The guilds of painters was called the Guild of Saint Luke, named after the patron saint of painters. Guilds remained active in some parts of Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, but their importance diminished in direct relationship to the rise in importance of other professional associations, such as the Pictura in the Hague in the 17th century and, above all, the Academies. The primary aims of the guilds were to regulates the commerce and training of painters and artisans and to provide for their welfare in later part of their lives.

As every other Dutch painter, Vermeer was required to undergo a six year apprenticeship with a master painter who belonged to the Saint Luke's Guild. In these years, the young apprentice was thoroughly instructed in the art and craft of painting and, upon his admission to the guild, was permitted to sign and sell his own paintings as well as those of his fellow painters. Recently, some scholars have come to believe Vermeer may have left Delft in order to study either in Amsterdam or Utrecht. Vermeer was required to pay an entrance fee of six guilders when he was admitted to the Guild of Saint Luke in 1653 (December). Normally, new admittees into the guild whose father had been members - as was the case with Vermeer - were required to pay three guilders, provided that they had trained for two years with a master of the guild. According to Van de Veen (1996) the only plausible explanation for the higher admission fee is that Vermeer's training had occurred outside of Delft.

HAPTIC

Haptic means "relating to or based on the sense of touch." Since its application in art writing is almost always about space, texture and/or volume, it is most typically used as an adjective for sculpture. It is less often used of painting (most often as a variation of painterly).

HISTORY PAINTING

A history painting is one which has a serious narrative, or includes exemplars of actions which are intended to have didactic overtones. In this sense the word history relates to the Italian istoria, meaning narrative or story (and not the accurate or documentary description of actual events). History paintings are often large in scale. Their subjects can be taken from the Bible, from mythology or other forms of secular literature, from historical events; or they can be allegories. Noble themes are seen as being particularly worthy of depiction.

History painting was viewed as the most important of the genres from about the 16th century, and the climax of an academic painter's training. It was the equivalent of Epic or Tragedy in literature.

"In the Netherlands, history painting, which was once the pinnacle of pictorial art, gradually became a minority art. Most young painters opted for the specialist career in one of the categories of painting that were menaced by realism. This was also, of course, a result of the economic situation within which they had to find a living as professional painters."⁷

Vermeer began his career as a history painter, a fact that might suggest that his master was a history painter himself. Whether Vermeer's initial impulse to be a history painter was stimulated by his artistic training, his conversion to Catholicism, or the hope that he would realize prestigious princely or civic commissions, he abruptly altered his subject matter and style of painting dramatically a few years after being admitted to the guild. In any case, Vermeer was perhaps the only genre painter who was able to confer the moral seriousness and dignity associated with history painting to his representations of modern life.

HOUDING

"Dutch artists and theorists often used the term houding to encompass the many pictorial tactics that might make a compelling mimetic painting. Vermeer's combination of spatial coherence, pleasing but unobtrusive surface design, and harmonious coloring that went into the production of a lifelike pictorial world amounted to good houding."⁸

A contemporary definition by Goeree of houding is as follows "... that which binds everything together in a drawing or a painting, which makes things mover to the front or the back, from the foreground to the middle ground and hence to the background to stand in its proper place without appearing farther away or closer, and without seeming lighter or darker than its distance warrants; so that everything stands out, without confusion, from things that adjoin and surround it, and has an unambiguous position through the proper use of size and color, and light and shadow, and so that the eye can naturally perceive the intervening space, that distance between bodies which is left open and empty, both near and far, as though one might go there on foot, and everything stands in its proper space therein."

Perhaps more than any other painting of the time, the works of the art of Vermeer and Rembrandt exemplifies the most thorough comprehension and implementation of houding. The exquisite naturalness and pictorial unity of a painting such as the Woman Holding a Balance is so successful that the viewer is hardly aware of the painting's meticulously constructed thematic and compositional structure. If we observe Pieter de Hoogh's Gold Weigher, a genre scene of similar composition and theme, we can see more clearly just how effective houding has comes into play in Vermeer's art.

HUE

That property of a color identifying a specific, named wavelength of light such as green, red, violet, and so on.

ICONOGRAHPY

Knowledge of the meanings to be attached to pictorial representations; perhaps the visual equivalent of symbols or metaphors in literature. Although the study of iconography in Dutch art has been a subject which has fascinated scholars for a good part of the 20th c., there still exist a number of controversial points yet to be resolved. And, there exist no contemporary texts which helps to explain either how or to what degree or painter should employ iconographical meaning. It should be also considered that an artist may have used iconography consciously; probably just as often, in a semi-conscious way. An artist can be said to have a personal iconography, which is often noted and analyzed by others, including art historians, critics, writers and the public.

Perhaps the simplest explanation for the lack of period writing on iconographical interpretation of genre paintings is that everyone, including the lower class, already knew their meaning quite well. Thus, what was common knowledge in those times and had no reason to be written became in our time an intricate, but largely uncertain, science.

Any reader who is fairly familiar with modern Vermeer literature has certainly noticed the abundance of iconographic studies of Vermeer's painting. The topic was initially touched on by P.T.A. Swillens (1950) and Lawrence Gowing (1952) in their respective monographs dedicated to the Delft master. From the early sixties, onwards, Vermeer's painting were believed to have allusive, allegorical or emblematic character. "In particular Eddy de Jongh - although not the first to do so - believed that many Dutch paintings, including Vermeer's, should be interpreted in the light of "prints in contemporary emblem books that are accompanied by mottoes and verses that together produce a didactic, ethical or proverbial conceit."⁹

De Jongh ("On Balance," in Vermeer Studies , 1998) has recently pointed out that "even though there exists a remarkable agreement about Vermeer's artistic stature, modern scholars have still have not reached a common stand as to the meaning that Vermeer may have invested in his painting. A methodological battle on the question of form and content in seventeenth-century Dutch art and has been waged for more than a decade, with a partial return to the idea of art for art's sake. Most Vermeer scholars, though, take a different view. They usually do not doubt Vermeer's intention of investing his work with meaning. The question is merely what was that meaning and, above all, whether it can still be deciphered."

In any case, in order to arrive at a full understanding of a painting's iconographical content, it is best to take into account not only of the supposed iconographical significance but also the general mood of the work which at times may seem contradictory to the initial iconographic reading.

ILLUSIONISM

The principle characteristic of an artwork which attempts to convince viewers that they are not looking at a representation but at the thing itself. In other words, illusionism means making an image as "realistic," in the conventional sense of the word, as possible. Especially when accompanied by the word "optical," "illusion" is often used to indicate an image which we recognize as playing a deliberate trick on us, like alternating figures. This is precisely not what is meant by "illusionism," which refers instead to coherent images which pass for the real.

The closest one can get to come to understanding the attitudes towards realism and illusionism in art theory in Vermeer's time is Samuel van Hoogstraten's Inleyding tot de Hooge Schoole der Schilderkonst: Anders de Zichtbaere Werelt, published in Rotterdam in 1678. "Hoogstraten (1627-1678), who, along with Carl Fabritius (1622-1654) had been a pupil of Rembrandt in the mid 1640s, may have known Vermeer because he lived in Dortrecht, not far from Delft. Hoogstraten was a multi-facetted artist who painted biblical subjects in the style of Rembrandt, genre scenes, portraits and tromp l'oeil still lives. As a consequence, his theoretical treatise, which is an amalgamation of many ideas drawn from the classics, Italian art theory, and his own experience, provides a relatively reliable glimpse into the intellectual concerns that must have been shared by many of Hoogestraten's contemporaries.

Hoogstraten provided the following ideal for an artists and an assessment of the requirements necessary to achieve that ideal ' I say that a painter, whose work is to fool the sense of sight, also must have so much understanding of the nature of things that he thoroughly understands the means by which the eye is deceived. ' According to Hoogstraten, then the artist's work is to fool the eye, to make the viewer believe that the image seen is an entirely different reality. The success of such understanding of the laws of nature and 'the means by which the eye is deceived. ' For Hoogstraten the means explicitly included the workings of vision and the theories of perspective, but also implicitly an understanding of the psychological expectations of a viewer encountering an illusionist image."¹⁰

IMPASTO

Paint applied in outstanding heavy layers or strokes; also, any thickness or roughness of paint or deep brush marks, as distinguished from a flat, smooth surface which enhances the effect of texture or of illumination. Some Dutch fijnschilders were so taken to the representation of texture that they pressed a piece of clothe to the almost dry area of paint which represented some kind of course fabric in order to mimic it texture. Rembrandt, in particular, is noted for his use of impasto. A critic of the time once remarked that his portraits were painted with such high paint relief that "they could be picked up by their nose."

Vermeer used impasto above all in his early works. For example, in the Maid Asleep, the carpet in the foreground has been reinforced with rough impasto application of paint. Vermeer took great care to re-create the interwoven patterns of the fabric and one can almost feel the material presence of the carpet's knotty texture.

Vermeer, like many painters of the time, also used impasto for another reason; that of enhancing the effect of light. The most strongly light areas of his compositions are often painted with heavy impasto since they are literally the most eye catching areas.

Vermeer's contemporary Van Hoogstraten, artist and art theoretician, was aware of another important characteristic of textured paint. "I maintain that perceptibility alone makes objects appear closer at hand, and conversely that smoothness makes the withdraw, and I therefore desire that that which is to appear in the foreground, be painted roughly and briskly,..." By contrast, shadowed areas were usually more vaguely defined with thin transparent or semi-transparent layers of paint.

Some areas of impasto in Vermeer's works have lost their original rough quality due to restorations that use hot irons in the process of relining the original unstable or worn canvas.

IMPRIMATURA

A thin, veil of paint, or paint-tinted size, applied to a ground to lessen the ground's absorbency or to tint the ground to a middle value.

INRARED REFLECTOGRAPHY

Infrared reflectography is used to visualize the surface of the ground layer of ancient paintings, hidden by the paint layers. The technique dates back to the early '30s, and was started as IR photography. In the late '60s a turning point was the introduction of vidicon-tube TV cameras. Reflectography makes use of radiation in the near infrared region of the spectrum, that is the range of wavelengths from about 1 up to 2 microns. High-resolution IR reflectography was started in the late '80s by our research group, with the realization of a scanning device capable of recording high-quality IR images. Infrared (IR) reflectography is a non-destructive optical technique for the analysis of painted surfaces, and particularly of ancient paintings on panel or canvas. The technique allows the recording of infrared images, called reflectograms, having the aspect of black-and-white images. By analyzing the reflectogram, the drawing made by the author on the ground layer (the underdrawing) may be read. This is due to the transparency of the paint layers to the radiation in the near infrared, that is to radiation having wavelengths in the range from 1 to 2 microns. Art historians nowadays use this method widely, indeed it turns out to be mandatory to obtain precious information on the author's technique and the graphical means used to draw. Other important data can be found using this technique, among these are: writings, signatures and dates, originally under the paint layer, or covered by restorations done before the reflectography. In other cases the analysis of the reflectogram reveals significant variations in the composition of the artwork with respect to its final version, or pentimenti of the author, and even sketches of objects without any relation to the painting as it is seen today. Reflectography is often used also by restorers. In many cases it eases the analysis of the creative genesis of the artwork and reveals previous restoration actions. IR reflectography is performed by using various devices.

Many alterations that Vermeer made in the course of the painting process painting have come to light with the aid of infrared reflectography. He altered the paintings' compositions in order to achieve greater balance and at the same time defined the paintings' theme more precisely. One of the most striking examples can be found in the Girl with a Pearl Necklace. Infrared reflectography image show that a map similar to the one which hangs in the Art of Painting was initially hung directly behind the standing girl. Some kind on musical instrument, most likely a cittern, was placed on the foreground chair and the dark blue clothe which hangs from the table once revealed more of the brightly light floor tiles underneath the table.

INTERIOR - GENRE INTERIOR

"Between approximately 1650 and 1675 some of the most beautiful scenes of domestic interiors ever painter were produced in the Netherlands. The real capital of this genre was Delft, where Pieter de Hoogh and Johannes Vermeer represented spaces with startling illusionism and remarkable geometric perfection. These painters translated the genre scenes created by earlier artists into domestic interiors inspired by their own homes, imbuing then with an unprecedented freshness and evocative quality."¹¹

"There is a substantial difference between the interiors painted after around 1650 and those of the first half of the century in their treatment of subject matter and pictorial space. The subjects depicted ( domestic scenes, amorous subjects and gathering of festive and other types) are no longer defined through their association with religious senses, series of the Four Seasons o the Five Senses, or illustrations of proverbs, but rather have acquired their own identity as a genre. The paintings inevitably continues to act as vehicles for different contents, but these are often these are less specific and present themselves in an ambiguous fashion and less overtly that in earlier works.

Most of the genre paintings produced in this period take place in an interior, generally inspired by elegant homes of the middle classes. They reflect concepts that were important to the Dutch culture such as family, privacy, intimacy, comfort and luxury, encouraging the spectator to think about issues relevant to his or her daily life, sometimes with touches of humor. Both from an anthropological and viewpoint as well as an architectural and decorative one, the home acquired and enormous importance in Holland in the second half of the 17th c.: the physical space of the of the upper middle classes expanded as the consequence of their growing wealth, dividing itself up into more spaces and offering to its inhabitants greater comfort and more private areas.. The way that genre painting moved indoors undoubtedly reflects this new interest on the part of the Dutch at hits time in then space in which the played out their domestic lives. "12

Even though the most striking as aspects of Dutch genre interiors is their ability to recreate space, texture and light in a realistic way, it should be remembered that they portrayed a modified reality.