The Holland of Jan Vermeer was different in many ways from other European countries of the seventeenth century. Since it had been able to break away from Spain during the sixteenth-century religious wars, Holland was neither Catholic nor royalist. It had become a conservative, middle class, Protestant democracy. The artist, like any other businessman, was part of the system of free competition. There was no longer an organized church to give him commissions, religious art was actually frowned upon, nor was there the important patronage of a court aristocracy.

As a result, the average Dutch painter turned from religious scenes to an art concerned primarily with the everyday world; from an art of elegance to an expression of middle class seriousness. Vermeer's feeling for the spiritual was now channeled into converting the commonplace into something more significant. Conversely, spiritual ideas and emotions tended to be brought down to a more mundane level, as in Rembrandt. Both viewpoints were, in fact, part of the two-hundred-year-old heritage from Jan van Eyck.

Within limits, the Dutch artist of this period was free to paint as he pleased, since he no longer was restricted to the prescribed subjects of religious art. However, he did become increasingly dependent on the merchant class which had not yet acquired the refinements of culture and taste. Without the guild restrictions of monarchist countries to limit the number of painters, the market soon became as saturated with artists and pictures as it is today. In order to compete, the painter had to produce what his new customers demanded; pictures that were clearly drawn, richly colored and which glorified in different ways, the wealthy burghers, their families, and their highly valued material possessions. However, even this did not always guarantee a livelihood. Frans Hals died in the poorhouse; Rembrandt, losing his popularity, ended bankrupt; and Vermeer, whose pictures certainly were popular, had much financial trouble.

Jan Vermeer offers the most impressive reflection of the worldly side of seventeenth-century Dutch life; its love of fine furniture, attractive women, and lavish clothing. Like Le Nain, though on a more cosmopolitan level, he glorifies commonplace objects and gives them an importance which, in another culture, would be reserved for classical or holy scenes. TheOfficer with a Laughing Girl (below) may recall the sanctity of two haloed figures having a chat and a drink. This simple activity is raised to a higher level by the rich warm atmosphere that suffuses the room, the clear glowing colors in which the characters are dressed, their great dignity and self-confidence, and the way in which the various parts of the picture are brought together.

The atmospheric quality had been used long ago by van Eyck; it becomes important again in the Baroque art of this period. That is just one of the glorifying elements. Even more striking is the "touchable" quality that we get from the objects in the room: the table, chairs, glass, cloth, map rods, and window panes. Under the enamel-like surface each substance is realized with a crystal clarity that also recalls the interiors of the early northern masters. The strong composition is not only a formal element, it also serves to give strength and emphasis to what is happening. This is accomplished by the use of a clear silhouette for each form. Strong parallel curves are bound together in an arc which sweeps from the left-hand to the right-hand chair. The spectator is led from the boldly outlined soldier to the related curves of the smiling woman. The eye is aided by the lines of the table and the way the heads touch the window and the wall map. There is a constant moving pattern throughout, a kind of wheel arrangement with the forms revolving about an empty space in the center, as in other Baroque compositions.

Vermeer's relationship to the art of his period is also seen in the positive evocation of both distance and infinity. Through the open window daylight comes, connecting outside-and, inside in a space-creating fashion. Geographical distance is implied by the typical wall map, symbol of the great Dutch trading nation with colonies in Asia and America; far off places which offered prosperity and success, places which were in everyone's mind.

Another instance of Baroque qualities is found in the Young Woman with a Water Pitcher(below) . The strong feeling for the texture of substances and the almost religious seriousness mark this as a typical Vermeer work. The young girl is at the center of the wheel arrangement, lost in thought as she gazes through the window. As in most Vermeer pictures, light is the dominating factor. Here it is used to silhouette the young woman against the wall and to throw reflections from the blue window pane onto her face and white starched collar and hood. These reflections are almost Impressionist in their awareness of the influence of adjacent objects on each other. The blue cushion is mirrored in the silver bowl and the figured tablecloth is reflected on the underside of the bowl.

Vermeer's life remains a mystery. It is known that he had a large family which apparently kept him scurrying for money. Once he had to borrow, while at another time he endorsed a note for someone. Though his paintings brought good prices there were occasions when he had to trade pictures for food. Once a visitor to his studio related that he had absolutely nothing to sell but that he lived very well, even luxuriously. None of this seems to have been permanent and the total result was the financial instability which became increasingly familiar to the "free artist" of the period. For two centuries after his death Vermeer was almost completely forgotten. Dealers sold his pictures as the work of the lesser Dutch genre painters. Today only thirty seven priceless examples of his work remain intact.