Painting: Young Woman with a Water Jug

Painting: Young Woman with a Water Jug

Introduction

The “Young Woman with a Water Jug” is a magnificent painting by Johannes Vermeer, a Dutch painter. The paper aims to discuss various artistic aspects of the painting, in detail. The paper also strives to understand the painting in context with the biblical scriptures, specifically form the King James Bible.

Discussion

A Dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer, finished this painting “Young Woman with a Water Jug” during the period from 1660 to 1662, in the Baroque style. This painting is currently displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The picture type is oil on canvas having dimensions of 18.0in by 16.0in. This painting is a perfect painting, which portrays a divinely executed, cool calm and collected situation. There exist many imitations of the painting, but even today, none of the imitations could portray that particular blue-white tone of light in Vermeer's painting (Binstock, 2008). This painting contains an astounding silent beauty, which requires no vague language to describe the beauty of the painting. This painting may seem to be ordinary at first, but it contains an untouchable mystery in it. Vermeer had been regarded as “Sphinx of Delft” by the nineteenth-century critics (Liedtke, 2001). However, there are still many trivial facts that had not been revealed about Vermeer such as: his teachers, friends, enemies and patrons, besides others. All we can find about Vermeer is through his work reflected in the paintings, from which Young Woman is the most mysterious. We shall discuss the painting by defining different aspects of the painting and finding their relevancy with Vermeer's other works.

The perfect proportions of the oil on canvas are filled with a soothing blue-white light, which dominates the tone of the painting and represents a crispy and vibrant spring morning. If one concentrates on the painting for 15 minutes, he will understand the entire theme of the painting. The light is gently striking the dark blue eyes of the woman, through the blue-paned window, and then falling on the blue ribbon, emerging from the jewelry box, and the blue drapery. This light is harmonized with the yellow map hanging on the wall matching the blue window and rhyming with the yellow jewelry box. Similarly, the basin and jug of brass is rhymed with the woman's jacket. The clear blue and yellow flowers on the red rug, on the tabletop, ...