Women Holding a Balance
Johnnes Vermer. c. 1664 C.E. Netherland. Oil on canvas
The small, delicate balance is the central feature and focus of the picture, which is all about the weighing of transitory material concerns against spiritual ones. It is a more explicitly allegorical work than usual, but some elements remain obscure. The work exemplifies Vermeer's style of Dutch Realist genre painting with its blend of painterly technique, moral narrative and, above all, intimacy
Form:
- pinky is the vanishing point
- center of the painting is the center of the balance
- compositional control in the way that color is handled
- gold from curtain on the inner painting frame and the pearls and dress
- soft swirled painting style
- common in baroque
- generally muted colors
- save his favorite blue and gold
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Baroque:
- "Baroque art is characterized by great drama, rich color, and intense light and dark shadows. Baroque artists chose the most dramatic point, the moment when the action was occurring. 's baroque David is caught in the act of hurling the stone at the giant. Baroque art was meant to evoke emotion and passion instead of the calm rationality that had been prized during the Renaissance."
- Vermeer uses:
- light
- shadows
- vibrant colors
- emotion thought
- diagonals
- attention to details
Function
- wealth and piety / spirituality
- need a balance between those two
- world possessions in front
- christ behind
- idea of weighing … judging
mirror
- sign of vanity so maybe relating to the worldly possession idea
- ignoring the painting and focusing on what is in front of her
- but also sign of self knowledge and truth
- To show what people in 17th C Holland were like
- maybe they were straying from religion?
Content:
- scene of everyday life BUT lots of symbolism
- woman is dressed in fine clothing
- she’s part of the upper MERCHANT class in Holland during the 17th C
- this class was increasingly buying more art “the scale and subject of which is very much like this painting”
- typical cap made of linen worn by women at home
- fur trimmed jacket meaning it's cold out / in
- stands in front of table
- on the wall opposite her is a window LETTING LIGHT IN !!!
- golden curtains
- also a mirror
- right hand has a very fine balance
- nothing on the balance
- as if she is waiting for the balance to come to a rest
- on the table in front of her there are a number of boxes
- one is open and is thought to have held the balance and weights
- in the other box are strings of pearls
- coins also which are an indication of material wealth
- maybe she’s going to weigh valuables?
- Behind her, there is a painting
- christ “in a brilliant mandola towards the top”
- functioning as a judge over souls
- souls at bottom
- one on the right are blessed and left are damned
- LAST JUDGMENT
- strong indication that this painting is about more than just a woman weighing her valuables
- her head divides the blessed from the damned
- Light also plays a huge part in this
- her front is illuminated = the side of the blessed
- her back is dark = damned
- the light also creates motion, brings to life this idea that she is waiting for the balance to become still
- aka the idea of time and change
- very real and natural at the same time bc this is a snap shot so it is frozen and quiet
- She is not pregnant
- "He observes that Dutch fashions of the mid-17th century seemed to have "encouraged a bulky silhouette. The impression of the short jacket worn over a thickly padded skirt in Vermeer's painting in particular may create just such an impression."
- interior scene = intimate
Context:
- "The origins of this work has been traditionally linked to Pieter de Hooch, whose Gold Weigher matches Vermeer's work very closely. Since neither of the paintings is dated, critics have hypothesized who influenced who on the basis of style."
- "Owing to the intimate nature of Vermeer's art, there has been an inclination to link the painter's family members to the figures of his paintings"
- in this case his wife
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- little is known about his childhood
- "Vermeer was required to undergo a fixed period of training with a master painter who belonged to the Guild of Saint Luke, the powerful trade organization which regulated the commerce of painters and artisans"
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- reminder of the changes taking place in the 17C
- artists now painting for the merchant class as opposed to for the church
- 1664 was the year before the Second Anglo-Dutch War
- much of the lead up to the war happened in 1664
- "Dutch ships were obligated by the new treaty to salute the English flag first. In 1664, English ships began to provoke the Dutch by not saluting in return. Though ordered by the Dutch government to continue saluting first, many Dutch commanders could not bear the insult. To provoke open conflict, James already in late 1663 had sent Robert Holmes, in service of the Royal African Company, to capture Dutch trading posts and colonies in West Africa. At the same time, the English invaded the Dutch colony of New Netherland in North America on 24 June 1664, and had control of it by October. The Dutch responded by sending a fleet under Michiel de Ruyter that recaptured their African trade posts, captured most English trade stations there and then crossed the Atlantic for a punitive expedition against the English in America. In December 1664, the English suddenly attacked the Dutch Smyrna fleet. Though the attack failed, the Dutch in January 1665 allowed their ships to open fire on English warships in the colonies when threatened. Charles used this as a pretext to declare war on the Netherlands on 4 March 1665."
