lady writing a letter with her maid
TRANSCRIPT
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Lady writing a letter with her maid
By Silvia del Pozo
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Artist: Johannes Vermeer
Year: c. 1670–71 Type: Oil on
canvas Dimensions:
72.2 cm × 59.5 cm (28.4 in × 23.4 in)
Location: National Gallery of Ireland
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Messenger for the lady and the lover.Inner restless and boredom.Similar to Gabriel Metsu’s painting.
The maid
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Inspiration from the Lacemaker.
The patch of bright white wall contrasts her right hand silhouette.
The Lady
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Suggests a quality of bourgeois life.It is an ideal as the Dutch preferred
floor made of wood.
The floor
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Maybe one that the lady has received or a draft that she rejected.
The letterThe carpet• Decorative designs reduced to a sort of calligraphic shorthand.• Knotty texture erased by an exceptionally smooth
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The chair and the objects tossed on the floor might indicate that some action would have just taken place.
The chairThe floor tiles•This is a tribute to his beloved Delft including a row of locally-made floor tiles.
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It functions as a familiar pictorial device called repoussoir.
This means a contrast by placing a large figure or object in the foreground of a painting.
The green curtain
Parrhasius and Zeuxis
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It establishes one of the three strong diagonal lines.
It softens the rectiliniar design of the composition.
The white curtain
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The leadings of the window seem to be identical in design with the ones in the Music Lesson but in this picture the central design has been colored.
The window
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It is a Finding of Moses. It follows the same technique of pictures
within-a-picture.The same Moses appears in the Astronomer.
The painting
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This painting has been stolen two times in the last twenty-five years.
In 1974 by the IRA. It was recovered a week later.
In 1986 by a gang led by the Dublin organized crime gang leader Martin Cahill. Only after more than seven years of secret negotiations and international detective work was the painting recovered.
As a curiosity…
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