Johannes Vermeer

Mistress and Maid, 1666−67, Oil on canvas, 90.2 x 78.7 cm, The Frick Collection, New York; Henry Clay Frick Bequest, 1919.1.126, Frick Collection, New York, USA / Bridgeman Images

Nocturnal Movements

Commentary by John Handley

Cite Share

Do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases.

(Song of Solomon 3:5)

Johannes Vermeer presents a scene filled with mystery in his Mistress and Maid, painted around 1667. A master at painting light, he has shifted from his more typical scenes representing softly diffused daylight streaming through leaded glass windows, and given us instead a dramatically-shadowed space illuminated to reveal little more than the immediate exchange taking place.

Vermeer depicts the bare essentials of an implied story: a finely-dressed woman is seated at her desk, having just now been interrupted from her letter-writing by the arrival of her maid who emerges from the shadows. Although we cannot see more than her profile, the bemusement of the Mistress is apparent: while laying down her pen she raises her left hand to her chin, a sign of apprehension.

The maid’s face is clearly visible, her eyes lowered, lips parted, she appears to whisper something; a slight grin on her face suggesting she might know something about the author of the letter but dare not tell, echoing the suspense in Song of Solomon 3:1.

The unopened letter is offered in a gentle gesture, as if to negotiate the space between them: the letter, bright white, hovers at an equal distance between the faces of the women, creating a sense of mystery. To whom is the Mistress writing so late at night? And who has written to her? Why is she so finely dressed, adorned with pearls, her hair delicately fixed? Is she awaiting the arrival of someone? Or perhaps her guests have recently left? We do not know.

The tension of waiting, and of longing late into the night, are conveyed in both the Song of Solomon and Mistress and Maid. As such, the text can imbue our experience of viewing this painting, and vice versa.

See full exhibition for Song of Solomon 3

Song of Solomon 3

Revised Standard Version

3Upon my bed by night

I sought him whom my soul loves;

I sought him, but found him not;

I called him, but he gave no answer.

2“I will rise now and go about the city,

in the streets and in the squares;

I will seek him whom my soul loves.”

I sought him, but found him not.

3The watchmen found me,

as they went about in the city.

“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”

4Scarcely had I passed them,

when I found him whom my soul loves.

I held him, and would not let him go

until I had brought him into my mother’s house,

and into the chamber of her that conceived me.

5I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

by the gazelles or the hinds of the field,

that you stir not up nor awaken love

until it please.

6What is that coming up from the wilderness,

like a column of smoke,

perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,

with all the fragrant powders of the merchant?

7Behold, it is the litter of Solomon!

About it are sixty mighty men

of the mighty men of Israel,

8all girt with swords

and expert in war,

each with his sword at his thigh,

against alarms by night.

9King Solomon made himself a palanquin

from the wood of Lebanon.

10He made its posts of silver,

its back of gold, its seat of purple;

it was lovingly wrought within

by the daughters of Jerusalem.

11Go forth, O daughters of Zion,

and behold King Solomon,

with the crown with which his mother crowned him

on the day of his wedding,

on the day of the gladness of his heart.

More Exhibitions