The wanderer may reflect the separation and desire for a reunion between the elegant young mistress and a distant lover represented by the missive in the mistress' hand. This picture-within-picture represents a lone wanderer (rendered with a few adept dabs of paint) in an idyllic landscape in the style of Adriaen van de Velde. Their meanings are drawn from 17th-century love songs (airs), love poems, courtesy literature, emblem books and even popular sayings. In The Love Letter, its sinuous floral pattern alleviates the almost obsessive geometrical scheme of the composition.įar from being a decorative filler, art-historical research conducted by art historians such as Gregor Weber and Elise Goodman, in particular, has shown that the many so-called pictures-within-picture in Vermeer's paintings relate iconographically to the scenes which unfold before them. However, it produces the most stunning effect in The Art of Painting. In the Allegory of Faith, it lies on the raised platform. In The Lacemaker what appears to be a similarly decorated tapestry lies on the tabletop beneath the still life. Such an article would have clearly been considered a luxury item not available to the lower classes. This widely exploited pictorial device stimulates the viewer's participation by subliminally inducing him to believe it was drawn back to reveal some unexpected event which he will shortly witness.Īlthough the tapestry was not recorded in the inventory of movable goods taken after the artist's death, it may have been a personal possession of Vermeer since it appears in various paintings.
The floral-patterned repoussoir tapestry that doubles for a curtain is yet another element that helps separate the pictured scene from the observer's space and enhance the illusion of depth and privacy.
It could have easily been an invention of the painter. No convincing explanation has been given for the front room's construction or function. Since the orthogonals of the map's design and lower hanging rod converge on the vanishing point of the painting's perspectival system, the wall on which it hangs must be at right angle to the right-hand section of the wall behind the free-standing chair and musical score. Although it is rendered with minimal detail, all of its features can be clearly observed in the early Officer and Laughing Girl where it appears to have been hand-colored, or more likely colored by the artist.
The map of the present painting, a map of Holland, must have been particularly pleasing to Vermeer since he inserted it in three other paintings. The great majority of them were meant for decorative rather than didactic or practical purposes.
#Love letter full
If we are to trust genre interior paintings of the 17th century, Dutch houses were full of maps.
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