Vermeer och van VeensAmorum Emblemata

Abstract

Summary The bearing of Otho van Veen's Amorum Emblemata (1608) on Vermeer has been admitted to some extent. Curiously enough, the connection so far observed has been confined to pictures hanging on the wall in four Vermeer interiors. Here follows a more penetrating study of the van Veen emblems and their epigrams, and their applicability in regard to the imagery of Vermeer. For the sake of brevity, the discussion is limited here to ten of the painter's most distinguished works. I. Vermeer's three earliest genre pieces (about 1656–1659) reflect the repertoire of the Rederijker chambers, as these are known to us through the work of Jan Steen (cf. Figs. 1–3, 5–6). In Vermeer's “The Procuress”, the officer to the right wears a cock feather in his hat, exactly as does his counterpart, the fool, in a painting by Steen. Moreover, the commentator to the left wears a costume of markedly outdated cut. In the “Allegory of Painting” in Vienna, the painter wears such a Burgundian dress which, according to de Tolnay (7...