A Dutch painter in the 1600s created images that can still tug at the human soul.
Last month, I spent a few days at the National Gallery in Washington DC and there was a particular painting I wanted to see: a work by a Dutch artist named Johannes, or Jan, Vermeer called Woman Holding a Balance. If I’m forced to pick (or if you’re playing “David & Art” trivia) it’s my favorite painting.
Vermeer was born in the Netherlands in 1632 and his life overlapped with other painters of what’s referred to as the Dutch Golden Age—people like Franz Hals, Judith Leyster, and, most famously Rembrandt. In these paintings you’ll find lots of interior scenes: lots of tables overflowing with food and fruit and game. The Netherlands was a wealthy place, built on trade, so you’ll also find lots of paintings of harbor scenes, the flag of the Netherlands flying prominently from mastheads. And there are lots of very perceptive portraits often with music included.
Vermeer lived in the town of Delft his whole life. Some scholars believe that studied with Carel Fabritius, a star student of Rembrandt’s who was killed in 1654 in a massive gunpowder explosion that devastated part of the town. During his lifetime most of Vermeer’s paintings—of which today there are far fewer than by just about any other major artist—stayed there in Delft with just a few patrons.
The one in particular that I like so much is of a woman holding a balance in front of her over a table. She’s looking down at it with such an aura of thoughtfulness that it just pulls you into her quiet contemplation.
On the wall behind her you can make out a painting of the last judgment and many interpretations of this work hone in on that: that this is an allegory of God judging humanity, one soul at a time. My interpretation is quite different, more intimate, more personal. The woman seems to be expecting a child and I believe that as she holds that balance in her hand, she’s thinking about whether she’s going to have a boy or a girl.
I went to see it three days in a row, and each time got something different out of it. When you have a favorite work of art and you return to it repeatedly, it’s not that you keep noticing new things about it. Rather, it’s that it speaks to you differently every time you see it, often depending on your mood and how you are feeling.
One thing that makes a National Gallery special is that it has three authenticated Vermeer’s hanging together. It also has a fourth that has been attributed to him but about which there’s still some uncertainty.
Reaching back to the 1600s and finding a human emotion to which you can react today is one of the greatest gifts art gives us.