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Vermeer and the Delft School
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Description
This small canvas was listed in the 1696 Amsterdam sale of paintings owned by Jacob Dissius as "A young lady weighing gold, in a case by J. vander Meer, extraordinarily artful and vigorously painted." The picture was most likely purchased from the artist by Dissius's father-in-law, Pieter van Ruijven, who was Vermeer's principal patron in Delft. The "case" was probably a frame with protective doors.
In its subject as well as in its highly refined execution Woman with a Balance is one of Vermeer's most sophisticated paintings. Its main theme is temperance: the woman holds up the empty scales to see if their balance is true. Contemporary viewers would have noted the mirror, jewelry, and Last Judgment, which, together with the young lady's allure, would have encouraged a comparison between worldly temptation and spiritual life. Scholars have proposed more elaborate readings, usually involving questions of religious doctrine or the anachronistic opinion that the woman must be pregnant (an interpretation of her fashionable costume first offered in the 1970s). From A Maid Asleep onward, thoughts of pleasure and restraint were raised by the artist and left to linger, without tipping the balance either way.
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Description