Woman Holding a Balance. Johannes Vermeer. c. 1664 CE Oil on canvas.
Form and Content
Light enters from the left, illuminating the figures and warmly highlighting textures and surfaces: the woman’s garments, wooden table, marble checkerboard floor, jewelry, the painting, etc
A moment in time: stillness and timelessness
The woman is dressed in fine, fur-trimmed clothing
Geometric lines focus on a central point at the pivot of balance
The figure seems unaware of the viewer’s presence
Her pensive stillness suggests she may be weighing something more profound than jewelry
Context
A small number of Vermeer works are in existence
Except for two landscapes, Vermeer’s work portrays intimate scenes in the interior of Dutch homes.
The viewer looks into a private world in which seemingly small gestures take on a significance greater than what first appears
A family member may have posed for the painting, perhaps Vermeer’s wife, Caterina.
Theories
Is it a genre scene or an allegory? Or both?
A moment of weighing and judging
In the background is a painting of the Last Judgment, a time of weighing souls:
The woman is at a midpoint between earthly jewels and spiritual goals such as meditation and temperance.
The balance has nothing in it, pearls and coins on the table waiting to be measured may be symbolic of a balanced state of mind.
The balancing reference perhaps relates to the unborn child
This is Catholic subject matter in a Protestant country; Vermeer and his family were Catholic.
Vanitas painting gold should not be a false allure
