"Inventing" or Drawing

The 17th-century concept of "inventing" corresponds to the initial drawing or sketching executed directly on the artist's canvas. This kind of drawing served to fix the most significant contours of the subjects and as a guide to subsequent stages of the work. Chalk, charcoal, tempera and oil paints in various tones were employed. Since the preliminary drawing was inevitably covered by successive layers of opaque paint, it leaves little material evidence and thus our knowledge of Vermeer's procedure is mostly speculative. Although Samuel van Hoogstraten, a painter and art theorist of the time stressed that this initial drawing should be kept loose, it is doubtful that Vermeer followed his advice.

"In a painter's studio, the primed canvas would probably first receive an underdrawing, during which the planned image was more or less precisely indicated. It could be done in black chalk on a light toned ground, but white chalk would work better on most colored (either red or gray) grounds. Underdrawing over a colored ground was most often done in some light medium, such as a thin, almost ink-like lead white paint, or a thin suspension of chalk in water. Academic tradition prescribed that the esquisse or ébauche should be done with white chalk, which could be wiped off with a damp rag or sponge to facilitate corrections. An additional advantage of chalk is that its refractive indices are so close to that of the binding medium, that once it is in contact with the oil, it can no longer be seen. "¹ One can observe, perhaps such a drawing, on the artist's canvas in the Art of Painting.

Very few traces of Vermeer's initial drawing have survived. In the Woman Holding a Balance there exists enough evidence to believe that he first "applied delicate lines with deliberation. A photomicrograph of the Woman Holding a Balance shows the contours of the figure's forearm echoing a fine brown line of the sketch. Some artists use the sketch as a starting point, freely modifying the forms in the final image. But whenever Vermeer's designed lines could be observed, it was clear that his final paint layers conformed very close to the sketch."²

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 .Evidence of drawing indicates that Vermeer used a thin brown lines in contrast with the light drawing of the painting in progress on the artist's easel. "The fact that that Vermeer depicted the painter beginning with the laurel wreath alone should probably be taken as a measure of the iconographic significance of the wreath rather than any literal evidence that, for example, Vermeer painted figure from the top down."³ Color has been applied in the very first stages of the and there exists no indication of a prior monochrome underpainting. Laboratory examinations, on the contrary, demonstrate that Vermeer always used a brownish monochrome underpainting to define composition, form and lighting before applying color.

In almost every rendering the artist's studio, a cabinet where equipment (brushes, pigments, solvents, oils essences, etc.) could be kept was shown nearby the artist at work. It would be hard to imagine Vermeer's artist standing up and taking a few steps just to clean his brush or pick up more pigment, gestures which would have been repeated hundreds of times during the arc of the painting process. The costume worn by the painter is one of the past; none similar can be found in other paintings of the same period. Furthermore, the trumpet held in the model's hands cannot fit within the bounds of the canvas in front of him judging by the preliminary drawing on the canvas. 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.

Preparatory Drawing?

It may come as a surprise to know that not even a single drawing by Vermeer has survived till today, especially if we take into account the complexities of his compositions and the extreme accuracy of contour, scale, and perspective. It is far more practical and economic to execute the preliminary studies on paper which can easily be corrected or redone entirely rather than to work out the drawing directly on the canvas. A few examples of these kinds of drawings by Vermeer's contemporaries such as Peter Saendredam, which represent elaborate church interiors, have survived. One that is attributed to the Delft painter Van Vliet can seen to the right.

The preparatory drawing could then be transferred to the canvas in a number of ways. One of the most common and efficient was to was to prick a series of holes along the lines of the drawing with a pin. The drawing was then laid directly over the canvas and fine powdered charcoal dust was gently filtered through the pin-holes with the aid of a pouncer.⁴ When the drawing was lifted from the canvas, the filtered charcoal dust accurately indicated the lines of the drawings. The artist then passed over with a brush and paint to fix the lines more permanently. In the detail of Leonardo's preparatory drawing (right) for the portrait of Isabella D' Este a rare example of this procedure can be clearly observed.

Using this simple technique, the fresco painter could transfer a very large drawing in a few minutes. This practice was eminently practical since the fresco painter works on humid plaster which dries within a few hours. The same technique used for transferring minutely detailed work of smaller dimensions as well as drawings which adorned the renowned porcelain production of Delft.

Had Vermeer used the pouncing technique, he would not have most likely retained the cartoons. Very few remain from any period. As strange as it may seem, it is possible that Vermeer was able to transfer the final image of his composition without having ever realized any kind of material drawing. Philip Steadman, in his study of Vermeer's use of the camera obscura (a sort of precursor of the modern photographic camera widely known by painters in Vermeer's time) conjectures that the artist may have actually traced the image projected by the camera obscura directly on the canvas. The camera obscura, which certainly served Vermeer principally as a compositional aid, would have rendered preparatory drawing superfluous. Although some scholars still strongly dissent with Steadman's arguments, most have conceded that they have a strong rational base and are in conformity with Vermeer's pictorial and expressive objectives . (For detailed information on the subject, read Steadman's Vermeer's Camera: Uncovering the Truth behind the Masterpieces, or visit his web site at: http://www.vermeerscamera.co.uk/home.htm.)

Although no preparatory or final drawings on paper of Vermeer remain, this does not necessarily mean that he had not at some time or the other produced them. Drawings, although collected by the more refined connoisseurs at the time, did not have the same value as they do today and considering that Vermeer's preparatory drawings might have been executed in a more schematic rather than expressive style, it is not unreasonable that they were not deemed of great value. A single "folio" such as the ones listed in the artist's death inventory may have contained his precious drawings and could have been lost or destroyed.