Paula Chateauneuf: Whenever I see a Vermeer
painting of musicians, I have this wonderful
feeling of calm. It's a visual representation
of the way you feel when you hear a lot of
this music
Pavlo Beznosiuk: I find that actually hear
music, sounds crazy, but I do, looking at
those paintings I do hear distant strains
of melody.
Betsy Wieseman: One thing that sets Vermeer
off from many his contemporaries is the way
in which he engages the viewer's attention.
In the woman standing at the virginal we see
a very elegant, well dressed, very proper
young woman with her hands on the keys.
She's turned to look at the viewer, as a way
of inviting the viewer into the scene. And
if we look in the background we see a little
Cupid holding up a single card. This was a
symbol for the preference for the love of
one over the love of many, so essentially
an advocate for monogamy. This is a woman
who is just looking for one person to come
and join her
The woman seated at a virginal is often seen
as a pendant to the woman standing at the
virginal. The two paintings are playing with
contrasting ideas of love. In the woman seated
at a Virginal we see a painting of a procuress,
of love for sale, not a very honourable form
of love but a more mercenary form of love.
There's a viola da gamba in the foreground
suggesting that she's waiting for someone,
presumably a man, to come pick up the instrument
and join her in harmony.
The guitar player is such a wonderful example
of Vermeer's unique ability to combine stillness
and sound. The woman herself is the picture
of stillness until we look at her hands and
the strings of the guitar. It seems as if
they've just been plucked and they're still
vibrating so he's just very subtly interjected
that note of sound.
The composition of the guitar player is very
unusual. It almost seems that the woman is
being pulled away from us outside of the picture
frame. There's something that has caught her
attention
She's quite a well to do young lady, quite
fashionable. Maybe a little risqué because
some of the repertoire for the guitar was
quite daring for the time.
Paula Chateauneuf: People thought the guitar
was the devil's instrument. And the devil
was sort of coming through guitar music and
influencing youth and making them touch hands
when they danced.
Betsy Wieseman: One of the reasons why I think
Vermeer is so effective in his musical depictions
is not so much for what he puts in the paintings
but for what he takes out.
The small painting of a woman seated at a
virginal is in many respects an absolute distillation
of what Vermeer was trying to do. I have the
sense that the woman has just lifted her fingers
from the keys, and it's that moment of suspended
silence and its absolute perfection.
I think Vermeer's musical subjects are really
indicative of him as a complete artist. He
is allowing space for the sound of the music
and for us to activate all of our senses not
just sight but sound as well.
ENDS
