The Art of Painting

Vermeer's Art of Painting from around 1666-68, in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, is his largest and most ambitious work—an elaborate allegory of painting itself, sometimes called the "painter's studio." The artist depicts himself from behind, working on a painting of Clio, the Muse of History, suggesting that painting is worthy of the highest intellectual and historical aspirations. Vermeer seems to have valued this painting above all others: he kept it in his studio rather than selling it, and his widow attempted to shelter it from creditors after his death.

The painting's complex spatial construction—the pulled-back curtain, the receding black-and-white tile floor, the map of the United Provinces—creates a theatrical stage for the allegory. Vermeer's technique achieves its most elaborate expression in the rendering of the chandelier, the map, and the model's blue-and-gold drapery.