This article is taken from the
Figaro Hors-série “Vermeer, painting silence”
.
In this special issue
, discover the Dutch Golden Age, the life and work of the Delft prodigy, on the occasion of the largest retrospective ever organized on Vermeer, at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Figaro Special
Edition “Vermeer, painting silence”.
The Figaro Store
The exhibition that the Rijksmuseum is devoting today to Vermeer seems a priori entirely dedicated to women and the world in which they lived.
Women are present on all the paintings except one of them;
they systematically dominate the scene and direct our attention.
The world that these paintings show us is undeniably feminine.
The men appear, most of the time, as visitors, at worst as intruders.
When they play an active role in the scene depicted in the painting - as suitors or seducers, for example, in the paintings where the men invite the women to drink a glass of wine, or interrupt their music for a gallant conversation - , their presence is in reality limited to a device for setting history in motion.
They are at most supporting roles, sometimes little more than accessories.
The women are always at the center of the action, and quite close to the center of the paintings.
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