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Although the thematic framework for Vermeer's late genre paintings remained rooted in scenes drawn from everyday life, his narrative approach is also more direct, and his admonitory tone less psychologically nuanced. Here, the woman has turned away from the virginal and stares purposefully out at the viewer. The musical instrument she plays had a traditional association with the purity of love. This same sentiment is reinforced by the image of Cupid holding aloft a card, which is based on a well-known emblem from Otto van Veen's Amorum Emblemata, 1608, that states a "lover ought to love only one".
Excerpt taken from
Vermeer: The Complete Works
by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr |
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