A Favorite Painting 13

Jan Vermeer, Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, c1664

As should be obvious from virtually all of the other paintings featured in this series, my tastes generally run to more modern works. I think part of that is that in post-Enlightenment paintings, the visual cues pointing to social, political and, I guess, psychological elements are more apparent to me, and therefore lend those works to more thoughtful consideration and interpretation. I don't mean to suggest that such cues are lacking in earlier works, only that my ability to discern them is limited. But in Vermeer's masterpiece (which I saw in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York back in the early 80s), such considerations are somewhat beside the point. Although clearly in a realistic vein, it's the impression created by the play of light on the woman's face, on the pitcher, even on the wall behind her that engages my attention and calls to mind the serene contemplation of existential questions that I associate with a state of almost child-like wonder at the mysteries of life, prompted by the crisp perception of a speck of dust gently falling through a sunbeam. After a certain age, we seem to lose the capacity to feel such basic, viscerally charged epiphanies, but Vermeer's painting sparks, for me at least, a recollection of just such a reverie. The shock of that memory is matched in another great work of art, Wim Wenders film Wings of Desire, in a scene where an angel eavesdrops on the thoughts of a group of train passengers, some of which match closely with the type described ("Why am I me and not you?"). I should not have been surprised (in hindsight) when, in reading an interview with Wenders after seeing his movie, I found out that he considered Vermeer a major influence on his work. I guess this speaks to the universal nature of great art, and suggests similar discoveries in store as I continue to explore pre-modern masterpieces.