| <Home J. Vermeer "Lady Standing at the Virginals" |
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Step-by-Step Analysis |
STEP 1 of 5: |
Begin with "The Strange Horn". STEP 1: Follow Cupid's bow line. "The Strange Horn": Note how the painting of Cupid has been positioned. The artist could have placed it in any position he chose. Yet it seems he positioned it badly (?) – positioned it in error (?). Cupid’s bow looks like a grotesque horn emerging from the lady’s head! But Vermeer was in full control of the composition! He wanted to draw attention to that bow and bowstring! This painting was composed to conform to a then secret geometric pattern – a pattern this writer calls “The Grail Geometry”. Vermeer chose a dramatic way to call attention to his hidden geometry. Subsequent illustrations will diagram the development of this pattern upon which Vermeer placed significant features of this painting -- as he did in at least seven others. As a consequence of this contention, this writer believes that Vermeer was a member of a secret society. STEP 1 . Note that the artist has purposely positioned Cupid’s bow so that the bowstring line, extended downward, goes through the Lady’s left eye. If this line is extended further downward, it goes through 1, the circled corner of the instrument.
This writer contends that the artist painted these features so as to conform to a predetermined geometric pattern. It will be shown that the line thus revealed is part of one side of a predetermined equilateral triangle – an element of what this writer calls “The Grail Geometry”. Click here for Grail Geometry Section ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Following Cupid's bow line. STEP 2 of 5: The Tilted Triangle. STEP 2: The line of Cupid’s bowstring has now been extended from point 1 up to point A on the top edge of the image. Assuming that this is one side of an equilateral triangle (all sides, all angles equal), the other two sides may be drawn.
STEP 2: (continued) Note the dramatic confirmation at 2, the top of Cupid’s card. Note the confirmation designated by the ellipse – the landscape on the instrument cover was painted with the lower side of the triangle used as a guide. The triangle has been labeled A—V1—V2.
STEP 3 of 5: More confirmations. STEP 3: To emphasize the triangular geometry, Vermeer positioned the corners 6 and 8 of the musical instrument on a line parallel with the side V1—V2. Note that the corner 6 has been positioned so that the line A—6 is the exact bisector of the vertex angle A. It should be clear that this arrangement could not have arisen by chance.
STEP 3 (continued) The triangular pattern above confirms and accounts for at least seven features painted by Vermeer:
A: the top edge of the frame; ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ STEP 4 of 5: The HEXAGRAM: STEP 4: At this stage of development we can see that the original bowstring line A—1 is part of a hexagram, an important constituent of the Grail Geometry. To arrive at STEP 4 from STEP 3, a circle is drawn around the first triangle: A—V1—V2. A second triangle: VH1—VH2—VH3 is then added to complete the Hexagram. We can see that Vermeer employed this second triangle to guide his composition. Click on the image below to ENLARGE the HEXAGRAM:
STEP 4 (continued) Note the circled confirmations including the exact center of the hexagram, which falls on the white line on the picture frame. That is – to put it more precisely -- Vermeer carefully painted (on the canvas) the white line on the picture frame so as to fall on the exact center of the hexagram (on the geometric layout sheet !). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ STEP 5 of 5: The TILTED SQUARE: STEP 5 (added 12/10/2003): I left this analysis a while ago without searching for a tilted square. An edifying exchange with a colleague has led to my adding the analysis below. His very faint hexagram in red prompted me to use his suggested strong geometric line of the top of the instrument cover -- something I missed previously. Assuming that I could use this line as one of the diagonals of the Tilted Square of the Grail Geometry, I proceeded to draw (in green color below) a line parallel to that cover-top (double green lines below suggest that Vermeer was guided geometrically to paint that cover-top to agree, somewhat displaced but parallel, with the strange "tail" on the Lady's backside). My third green line, parallel to those two, I purposely drew to go through the mountainside depicted on the cover artwork; and I drew it to go precisely through the circled feature where the bottom outline of the Lady's wrist intersects the edge of the instrument. Such intersections are favorite features for registration with the guiding geometric pattern.
STEP 5 (continued). Once a decision on one of the diagonals is made, then the other diagonal has to be drawn perpendicular to it as the next move. A good guess, I thought, would be to have that other diagonal go through the very prominent corner of the cover. Vermeer uses lots of sharp corners in his paintings! Can it be any wonder why? Since the rules of the Grail Geometry (GG) must be obeyed if we are to prove that Vermeer used it, now we've got to think about the Tilted Equilateral Triangle associated with the square -- whose diagonals we just decided on! We have two lines -- the diagonals of the square -- yet to be drawn. We need a third. Well, to make a long story short, I used as the third one a line developed in the previous steps -- the one that convincingly clips the top of the playing card held aloft by Cupid. Both diagonal lines must define a square whose top side is the line that clips the top of Cupid's card. Geometers amongst you will see that the triangle and the square are thus defined by those three lines -- two diagonals and the Cupid card line. So it is straightforward to complete the diagram as shown above in green. The confirmations are strong and ample. The left side of the Tilted Square of the GG goes precisely through the right eye of Cupid and the Lady's nose! Two other confirmations are circled under the instrument, and the lower-left vertex of the Tilted Equilateral Triangle of the GG falls precisely in the narrow triangular slot showing where a tiny bit of the uncovered innards of the instrument are revealed. Note how the black line -- the line parallel to the left side of the green tilted square -- how that line clips the lower right corner of the small picture frame, and how it also hits precisely the upper left corner of the large picture frame (that point is POINT A -- the "Northwest Point")! If Vermeer had not painted these features where he painted them, in registration with his pre-determined geometric layout, then these intentional coincidings (not accidental coincidences) would not occur with such overwhelming frequency. Let me put it in the positive: Vermeer laid this painting out to conform to the Grail Geometry. But what I want to call attention to is the little coffin-shaped rectangle I drew where the diagonals intersect on the mountainside. This is traditionally emblematic of a secret burial -- and Vermeer is demonstrating that he's one of the "cognoscenti" -- he knows the "secret" of the legendary burial by the Templars of the "Holy Grail". That he knows it is demonstrated graphically here -- but HOW did he know a then-jealously-guarded secret -- a secret harboring consequences of religious retaliation? He might have been commissioned to do so -- or -- he did so out of personal conviction. "YOU DON'T FIND THE GRAIL -- THE GRAIL FINDS YOU" (From the novel "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown, 2003) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Indeed, all the features mentioned as “confirmations” in this website are features that the artist positioned in precise registration with selected nodes, angles, and lines of the Titled Triangle, the Tilted Square, the Hexagram(s), and The Grid of The Grail Geometry -- on separate layout sheet(s) -- as compositional guides and constraints. The artist was using a then-secret "treasure-map" pattern to achieve arresting compositions -- and to make a religious statement (see the book "Vermeer's Riddle Revealed: The SPHINX, The JESTER, and The GRAIL GEOMETRY", by Robert A. diCurcio).
Further analysis of this painting may be found in Robert A. diCurcio’s book “VERMEER’S RIDDLE REVEALED”. In my book I have demonstrated that Vermeer used three different hexagrams (of which the one exhibited above is just one of those three).
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