11 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

11. LADY WRITING A LETTER WITH HER MAID

I am renaming this: SHOULD WE NAME THE BABY "MOSES"?

The nineteenth (19th) original Grail Geometry analysis on the site.

STEP 1. This is my seventeenth (17th) Vermeer analysis (the nineteenth one -- 19th -- overall), so I am assuming Vermeer has used the Grail Geometry (GG) here, as he has in the other sixteen (16) masterpieces I have examined. There are only thirty-five or so paintings accepted as Vermeers, so we are talking about a majority, now.

Step 1.  As usual I look for an obvious line-up, and I choose the tops of the two heads.  Bingo! -- the line tangent to the tops of the two heads hits the corner of the window -- no longer a surprise.  Assuming this is the top side of the Tilted Equilateral Triangle, I draw a line a 60 degrees to the "heads" line, assuming that the corner of the window is the crucial "Northwest Point".  I find at this juncture no particular confirmation of this conjectural second side angling downward, but I am confident now, based on prior successes. Therefore, I draw several dashed lines from painted feature to painted feature (at the proper angle -- 60 degrees to each of the two putative sides) fishing for that elusive third and final side for the all-important Tilted Equilateral Triangle.

STEP 1.  EXPLORATORY LINES

STEP 1 continued.  Which of the dashed lines above should I select for the completion of the conjectural Tilted Triangle?  For a long time I was baffled -- but coming back to the problem one early morning, a clue hit me. Look at the "maid".  She is pregnant!    Although the accepted title of the painting is "Lady Writing a Letter With Her Maid", the girl standing in the light is no servant!  A more likely story unfolds:  This is the daughter of the woman writing the letter.  Is this a family problem -- an unwed mother? Vermeer's contemporaries may well have nodded their heads about this one -- a story then familiar to their circle in 17th-century Delft? Note the painting that Vermeer has chosen to hang on the wall -- the baby Moses rescued by Pharaoh's daughter.

So how does this influence my choice of lines? I choose for the line completing the triangle the one that clips the corner of the writing table.  See STEP 2 below:

STEP 2. We assume it's about her pregnant daughter.

STEP 2.  If I am right in guessing that Vermeer's painting is about a pregnant daughter, then the triangle I have chosen (above) will prove to be correct.  How so? Because if correct, the geometry will call attention to the pregnancy.  We shall see . . .

STEP 3. GG drawn -- based on the triangle chosen in STEP 2:

STEP 3.  Using the triangle guessed at in STEP 2, I have drawn a GG tilted square according to the rules.  BUT the result, although seemingly plausible as having guided Vermeer's hand, does NOT seem to be the final say-so.  I have put a double diamond on the intersection of the diagonals of the square, but the location is nowhere special (I had hoped the "X marks the Spot" would fall on the pregnant girl's swelling tummy).  No -- it would have to go up and to the right.

Hmmm . . . wait!  What's that strange white pointed SLASH doing there between the window and the drape? Looks suspicious!  Is this another one of Vermeer's broad hints?  Should we draw a line through it? Let's try . . .

STEP 4.  I drew a square using Vermeer's strange white gash between the window and the drape. It's there for a reason -- look for geometry!

STEP 4.  Look at that white "thing" -- I surrounded it with an elongated ellipse and numbered it "2".  What's that? Draw a line along it -- collinear with it -- what happens?  Look at "1" -- sliver of window light; look at "3" -- a registration with the apex of the floor tile.  This is a confirmed registration marker for the composition -- it makes no other sense -- Vermeer doesn't leave mistakes or anomalous compositional gaffes.

 I drew line 4--5 parallel with the registration line 1--2--3 so that it would go through that other wonderful registration marker at "4" -- those two anomalous light-colored markers on the drape at the upper left.  Now!  A line drawn at 45 degrees (geometers will understand searching for the diagonal of a square) down from POINT 4 goes -- Bingo! -- right across the swelling tummy of -- not a maid, too well-dressed, too poised -- the daughter, relative, or friend of the solicitous letter writer! This is most encouraging.

The Tilted Square of the Grail Geometry

Now I have part of one side (LINE 4--5) and part of the diagonal (LINE 4--7) of a square.  I purposely drew the other three sides of the square (LINES 4--6,  6--7,  and 5--7) so that the other diagonal (LINE 5--6) would intersect its mate (diagonal LINE 4--7) right smack on the swelling tummy at "X marks the Spot" -- POINT "PX" -- as labeled above.

Note that I have left the lines from the previous steps in place as dashed lines.  It is most gratifying to see that my PX registers with the previous one (the double-diamond one of STEP 3).  Both are on the same line -- diagonal LINE 5--6.  The question arises as to whether I'm just forcing things to come out the way I want them to -- did Vermeer plan the composition this way?  The answer will be "yes" if I can show a sufficient number of painted features that register with this new Tilted Square -- and its associated Tilted Equilateral Triangle and Hexagram.  So these must be drawn next -- in STEP 5.

STEP 5.  I added the rest of the Grail Geometry according to the rules.

STEP 5. Once a confirmed square is identified, it is a straightforward procedure to add the Tilted Equilateral Triangle and the Tilted Regular Hexagram associated with it (review the explanation at the GRAIL GEOMETRY button).  The question is:  did the pattern shown below guide Vermeer's hand in this composition?  I think we can say yes with assurance.  I have circled below about a dozen painted features that the artist  positioned to conform to the pattern shown.  And it is always the same pattern -- with variations on the basic theme. In my book I show that Vermeer sometimes used two hexagrams in the same composition.  The ability to do this is awe inspiring.  The compositions are far from forced -- and yet they adhere closely to the lines, nodes, and angles of this geometric skeleton to which Vermeer was devoted.  And therein lies the secret of the riddle -- what is it about Vermeer's paintings -- why do they captivate and mesmerize?

I believe that we may rest assured that Vermeer intended to portray a pregnant girl here. As shown above, the geometry that he used puts the focal point -- the "X marks the Spot"-- on the swelling stomach of the standing figure,  where I have called attention to it with a small square. Can we be confident of the geometry shown above? Yes.  Look at how the square 4-5-6-7 is anchored at POINT 4, where Vermeer obviously positioned two marker features that have nothing to do with the reality of the scene.  Look at the elongated ellipse that I have drawn at the bottom. LINE 5--7, a side of the square, guided the border of the rug on the floor and clipped the inside corner on the bottom of the chair. This line also went exactly through a corner of the tile (circled). The diagonals of the square and of the hexagram go through several circled features clearly positioned according to the planned geometry. There are other confirming features that I did not circle for reasons of keeping the exhibit uncluttered as possible. They are there for your inspection.

Vermeer has varied the usual position of the pattern for this painting -- as he has done a few other times (see, for example, "The Little Street") -- but the pattern is always the same, and it has been identified in sixteen of his works up to here (and the same pattern has been identified in this website in a Goya and in an El Greco).

The received title "Lady Writing a Letter With Her Maid" implies that the pregnant girl is a servant. No, she's too well-dressed -- too poised in the presence of the letter writer.  She looks out the window hopefully to the future -- or is it worriedly, while Vermeer has hung a painting of a famous baby -- little Moses rescued by the Pharaoh's Daughter -- prominently as a backdrop.  A fictional story could be written now about that letter, about the mother-to-be, the father, the coming baby, the letter-writer (the grandmother?) -- and the artist who knew the real story!

bobdic@comcast.net