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Charlotte Mason Picture Study Aid Johannes Vermeer

Woman Holding a Balance

c. 1664
oil on canvas
39.7 x 35.5 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

KEY TOPICS:

• !is painting includes a woman on the right side of the picture plane dressed in a fur-lined, blue jacket over a

yellow gown. Her head covering, falling down to her chest, is made of white fabric and in her right hand she
holds up a delicate balance with empty scales. Her le) hand rests lightly on the table in front of her. !e table is

covered in fabric upon which rests a small trunk with jewelry draped over its sides and spilling out on to the
table top. !ere is also a piece of blue fabric partially blocking the view of the rest of the table. Near her hand

rests a piece of ribbon as well as metals weights and a few coins or tools. In front of her is a window with a

curtain drawn over it which is the room’s only source of light. Behind her is a painting of the Last Judgment in a
black and gold frame.

• Where Vermeer was normally very meticulous in his re-painting, this piece may have had an oversight in that the

bottom frame of the painting behind her is not level. !e le) side of the frame is higher than the right to make
room for the balance in her hand to contrast against the wall.
3
• !e weight in front of the picture of the Last Judgment may be a reference to St. Ignatius Loyola and his Spiritual

Exercises in which he wrote in 1524 "to weigh the sins, looking at the foulness and the malice which any mortal sin
committed has in it, even supposing it were not forbidden.” !ough scholars have been unable to definitively
3, 4
identify the painting, it has been su'ested that it was a piece done by a Flemish painter by the name of Jacob de
Backer who lived from c. 1555 - c. 1585. 5

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