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Vermeer and the Delft School
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Description
In the courtyard of a fine brick house, a little girl helps a maid with household chores. The space they occupy is carefully balanced against that occupied by the woman in the corridor, who must be the mistress of the house. A tablet over the doorway, based upon one commemorating an Augustinian monastery in Delft, refers to meekness, humility, and being lifted up, perhaps an allusion to the meek who "shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5.5). The courtyard setting, which De Hooch depicted in an impressive variety of compositions, allowed him to explore perspective effects, patterns of color and texture, sympathetic shapes (such as angled doors and shutters), and a distinctive world that linked the home with the community.
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Description