A heavy tapestry is drawn aside to let us glimpse a sunlit studio: a painter, his back to us, sits at his easel painting a young woman crowned with laurel and holding a trumpet and a book; a great map of the Netherlands hangs on the wall, and a golden chandelier hangs from the ceiling. It is Vermeer's homage to painting itself, and his most complex and most cherished work.
Key facts
- Artist
- Johannes Vermeer1632–1675 · Dutch
- Date
- c. 1666–1668
- Period
- Baroque1600–1720
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 120 × 100 cm
- Location
- Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Austria
Actual size
Compared with an adult 170 cm tall
Palette
#342A1E#201911#4A4031#6C5E4A#92836CBackground
It is one of Vermeer's largest and most complex compositions. It was not a commission; he may have painted it to show off his skill, and he never sold it in his lifetime.
Vermeer died in 1675 deep in debt. The next year his widow, Catharina, transferred the painting to her mother, Maria Thins, hoping to keep it from the creditors; the executor handling the estate was none other than the microscopist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, famous for discovering microorganisms.
In the twentieth century it belonged to the Czernin family in Vienna. In 1940 Hitler bought it for the museum he planned to build in Linz. After the war it was found in an Austrian salt mine and handed over to Austria; it is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
Technique & composition
Vermeer builds the space with exact perspective: recede into depth, while and the chair in front act like stage curtains, drawing us in. Light from a window at the left falls on , and , each material catching the light in its own way.
The light, creases and flaking paper of are painted with meticulous care, and it is framed by twenty small views of Netherlandish cities. shows only the model's laurel wreath so far, letting us see the painting in progress.
Details
Symbolism
The muse of History
, crowned with laurel and holding and , matches Cesare Ripa's description in his Iconologia of Clio, the muse of History. The trumpet stands for fame, the book for history. By painting Clio, the painter suggests that painting can win lasting renown.
Rivalry among the arts
may stand for sculpture, and the open book and fabric for other arts. The painter leaves them aside and concentrates on his canvas, implying that painting surpasses sculpture and the rest. Some scholars read the crease across and as political allusions to the division of the Netherlands.
Stories
- Did you know?
is often taken to be Vermeer himself, but we never see his face. His slashed black doublet and orange-red stockings were costly, fashionable dress for the time.
- Did you know?
In the nineteenth century Théophile Thoré-Bürger, the French critic who rediscovered Vermeer, considered this the most interesting of all his works.
Legacy
The Art of Painting is Vermeer's manifesto on art, flawlessly uniting naturalistic technique, luminous space and layered allegory. Salvador Dalí admired it greatly and brought its painter, seen from behind, into his Surrealist work The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used as a Table.
