This vista into a Dutch interior, offered to us by the Delft painter Johannes Vermeer, reveals an intimate domestic scene: a lady is holding a letter she has most likely just received from her housemaid. She looks up at the maid, whose body language suggests that she has more than just an inkling about its contents.
Vermeer gives us some clues about the nature of the letter as well. First, the special point of view (through the doorway, with the curtain pulled aside) turns us viewers into voyeurs, and makes us witnesses to a delicate situation we should perhaps not know about. Second, the room is filled with objects that traditionally refer to love matters, either with a positive meaning (sheet music, lute) or something less decent (broom, slippers, or again the lute!). Vermeer’s contemporaries recognized such symbols, which were explained in emblem books that contained pictures, each accompanied by a motto or a verse to clarify their meaning.
An extra dimension is added by the paintings on the wall. In Dutch interior scenes, ‘paintings within paintings’ often have substantive significance. In The Love Letter (1669), the pictures in the background represent the love theme in a subtle way. The upper picture shows someone wandering along a path – symbolizing an uncertain future. The seascape underneath, showing a ship at full sea, might refer to a distant lover of the lady, far away at sea (not uncommon in that period of the Dutch Republic), but it’s more likely that the boat on a turbulent sea symbolizes an ardent lover.
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