10
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
10.
THE PROCURESS
(One
of Vermeer's earliest forays into geometric composition)
AS
PAINTED WITH EXPLORATORY LINES
Upon
approaching this one, it seemed to me that the girl's right
hand was approximately in the center of the image. I
drew diagonals from the corners, and they confirmed this approximately.
Next the horizontal and vertical lines to intersect on the
hand. Then it's a matter of exploring. At this stage it seems
that Vermeer positioned the girl's outstretched thumb and
little finger, so I adjusted slightly the horizontal
and vertical lines to register with the finger tips. A
further slight adjustment of all the lines, and -- Bingo!
-- the girl's other little finger (near the bottle) falls
on the horizontal line, and the jovial man's thumb is registered
on the diagonal line.
Note the "the jovial man" is held to be Vermeer
himself -- a self-portrait -- beckoning the viewer to join
with him in savoring a moment in time -- witnessing a business
transaction in consummation. I
have not circled all the confirmations of these four lines,
but they are there for inspection. For example, look
at the tangency to the girl's eye and lips. Since this is
one of the early Vermeers, maybe he's trying his hand at this?
We shall see. More investigation is clearly warranted!
I have not yet drawn any Grail Geometry lines -- I will
investigate this next.
THE
GRAIL GEOMETRY EMERGES
There
can be little doubt that even here, in one of his earliest
genre paintings (ca. 1656 at age 24), Vermeer was a "cognoscenti"
-- in the know -- about this secret geometric pattern. Neither
can there be any doubt that this fine painting was composed
with the Grail Geometry. I kept the vertical and horizontal
(dashed) lines that intersect on the girl's palm -- below
the coin in the man's hand. This is where I tried a pair of
more heavily dashed diagonals. I placed their intersection
precisely on the palm where the other lines intersect. Then
I noticed down at the bottom of the picture two leaf-like
figures (circled) with black and red markings. These must
be Vermeer's registration markers! The circled one on
the right helped me to adjust precisely one of the diagonals.
Using these diagonals, I was able to try exploratory
squares until I had one whose top side ran tangent to the
top of the girl's covered head, and whose right side ran tangent
to the black & white jug (that threatens to topple down).
This choice of square is confirmed, since the
bottom side clips neatly the red registration marker within
the circle -- and when this side is extended, it runs exactly
into the point of the hanging draped carpet at the lower right.
Having
identified the Tilted Square used by Vermeer to guide this
composition, it is a straightforward matter to draw the associated
Titled Equilateral Triangle and the associated Tilted Regular
Hexagram of the Grail Geometry -- as I have done above. Note
how the girl's head is neatly contained within the small triangle
-- a favorite method of Vermeer's. Note how the tip
of the nose of The Procuress falls on the principal diagonal
of the hexagram. Another of the many possible diagonals
of the hexagram is drawn above, showing how Vermeer positioned
the eyes of the girl to line up with a tangent to the forehead
of The Procuress.
This
picture, viewed without the lines, is an unparalleled masterpiece.
But there's something about seeing explicitly how these features
connect with one another geometrically! I hope I have
contributed to the understanding and appreciation of Vermeer's
genius by drawing these geometric figures on the reproductions
of his masterpieces,
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