Woman Reading a Letter, with a Maidservant by Gabriel Metsu, ca. 1663
The painting above caught my eye because I at first assumed it was by Vermeer (click to enlarge, and note the light, and the mirror reflecting the window), but it's by a contemporary and countryman of Vermeer, Gabriel Metsu.
I'm posting it because of the interesting detail in the upper right, where the woman is pulling back a curtain on a rod in order to view an oil painting. The cloth obviously serves as a sunblocker to prevent the pigments from fading; I frankly didn't know that such precautions were taken. Interesting.
Addendum: a hat tip to Riezky for confirming that hanging a curtain in front of a painting was a "common custom in Dutch seventeenth century especially for precious painting from a master."
Via Miss Folly, of whom I am recurrently jealous because of that wonderfully wide center column in the blog for displaying images...
Or maybe the woman is reading a letter from her husband who is at sea again, and the curtain is so that she isn't constantly reminded that he is away.
ReplyDeleteWay too bright for a Vermeer.
ReplyDeleteFor a wider template, go to your blogger dashboard page and click "Design" and then "Page Elements"...you can try different templates (it'll show you how TYWKIWDBI would look with each one you fancy), but you can still leave it as is if you want. Also, if you like the colors you have now, you can keep them too. Just play with the variables at the top of Page Elements. It's easy to change, honest!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Marlys, for the suggestion. I did try that once before, but discovered that I can't change the column width of my (old) template. I need to switch to one of the new templates to fiddle with the design.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your comment, I tried again. I think I can do it, but I'm going to have to spend a whole night on it, I think. Maybe later in the month.
Tx for the encouragement.
stan
veil a painting with curtain is common custom in Dutch seventeenth century especially for precious painting from a master. They open it when some special occasion happen, like wedding or baby birth party.
ReplyDeleteMetsu may has debt for Vermeer because before 1660, his painting style is very different.
Awesome painting, Metsu continue the tradition of Fijnschielders (fine painters) who love paint with accurate detail. Vermeer prefer more abstraction for his painting