Previous
Chapter 1: 1664
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Girl with a Pearl Earring, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Power of Art
Obligation, Mutual Support, and Personal Agency
Wildness and Restraint
Women’s Roles
Sight and Insight
Summary
Analysis
It is March, and Griet is visiting her family. Her father wants to know about the progress of Vermeer’s current work, a portrait of the baker’s daughter wearing a yellow and black bodice, blue skirt, and long pointed cap in the style Griet herself favors. Griet tries to explain to her father how the cap appears white from a distance, but up close one can see how Vermeer painted it with blue, violet, and yellow pigments. The baker’s daughter stands looking out the window, her attention arrested in the act of picking up a pewter pitcher. Griet’s father grows increasingly frustrated with her attempt to describe the painting. The winter’s cold, the loss of Agnes, and the family’s meager lifestyle make him irritable.
The fact that Griet knows so much about color theory—the way Vermeer uses different colors to make the cap in his painting look like a vibrant, three dimensional white—as well as her familiarity with the subject from the earliest stages of the work hints to readers that she’s been spending much more time in the studio than before. Soon, she will explain that backstory. Watching Vermeer work gives her a new perspective and understanding that vastly exceed her father’s limited artistic sensibilities.
Themes
Griet excuses herself before her father can sense her rising irritation with him and the conversation. She goes to collect footwarmers to place under the table while they eat their meal. Her father complains about the thin, flavorless stew, demanding to know why she has stopped bringing pilfered treats from the Vermeers’ to enrich it. Griet confesses that she’s been avoiding Tanneke, and when her parents press her about what she’s done, she lies and says she spilled a whole jug of good ale. Her father, unable to see her face, buys the story. But her mother doesn’t.
Griet has always kept her thoughts to herself, but her increasingly vulnerable position in the house—due to her increasing intimacy with Vermeer—leads her into new territory: lying outright. In this way, she tacitly acknowledges the impropriety and wildness of her current course of action, even as she clings to her naïve belief that she can control herself and the situation.
Themes
After the family eats, her mother joins Griet for part of the walk back to Papists’ Corner. Her mother insinuates that, at nearly 17, Griet has reached marriageable age. She’s heard that Pieter has been flirting with her, and she wants her daughter to encourage his affection—in part, Griet realizes, because she longs for good food and meat again. Griet feels surprised, but she’s also grateful that her mother doesn’t press her about her lie. The truth—that she’s been helping Vermeer in the studio—would be too hard and too much to explain.
The fact that Griet’s mother knows about Pieter points towards the efficiency with which market gossip spreads news around Delft. This serves as a reminder of how easily a reputation can be ruined by missteps, especially sexual ones. It seems that Griet’s passion for restraint and order are well founded. But she’s already turning away from these values, towards lying and secrecy. Thus far, she’s been able to hide her increasing role in Vermeer’s studio—with its implication of increasing intimacy—but this conversation with her mother suggests she may not be able to keep that up indefinitely.
Themes
The reason Griet can’t bring her family stolen treats has to do with something that happened two months ago during a cold snap that made Johannes and Franciscus ill and kept most of the city huddled indoors. One morning, Catharina sends Griet to the apothecary for some medicine—an errand usually reserved for higher-ranking family members like Catharina herself or Maria Thins. But it’s too cold for anyone to want to venture outdoors. Griet bundles up and steps outside. Suddenly, she hears someone calling her name. It takes her a minute to realize that Vermeer has opened one of the studio windows to call down to her. Discovering that she’s off to the apothecary, he asks her to pick up a few things for him too, which he writes out on a list.
Griet’s narrow role in the household—she’s part of the staff, not a family member, and she’s the lowest ranking member—points towards the general limitations on women’s role in her society, especially for the daughters of unemployed former artisans. Vermeer calls down to her from on high in his studio, where he sits above the rest of the family (and the household noise and chaos), sort of like God. And he does have a great deal of power over Griet, even if he doesn’t feel much responsibility towards her, or how his employment of her on his errands might be interpreted by others in the household.
Themes
Get the entire Girl with a Pearl Earring LitChart as a printable PDF.
Griet walks across town, grateful for the warmth when she reaches the apothecary. The apothecary is surprised to see her and even more surprised when he realizes that Vermeer has trusted her with fetching the materials for his painting pigments, since he always gets them himself. Once the apothecary has bundled the purchase for her, Griet returns to the house, where she hands the medicines to Catharina then hurries to the stairs to give Vermeer his supplies.
Earlier, when Cornelia asked to go with Vermeer to the apothecary, he refused. Now, he sends Griet there on his behalf. He’s setting up a conflict by showing his trust in (and thus preference for) her over the others. Griet sees this, but she doesn’t understand the full importance of the shift, or what it will mean for her position in the house, yet.
Themes
Cornelia trails behind Griet, demanding to know what’s going on when she sees the maid handing her father a package. Vermeer silently climbs back up to the studio, leaving Griet to explain that she bought some paint things for him. Intuiting that it’s dangerous for too many people in the house to know that she ran an errand for the master, she tries not to say too much, and she worries what the shrewd, unpredictable Cornelia will do with this newfound information. A few days later, Griet returns from a Sunday with her family to find that Cornelia has rummaged through her belongings and broken the tile her father painted in half.
Because she hasn’t yet realized his true nature, Griet feels surprised when Vermeer abandons her to face Cornelia alone. Yet, he often disappears to avoid conflict and chaos, retreating to his calm studio. For her part, Cornelia seems to react both out of her innate wildness and out of a sense of jealousy that Griet has more access to her father’s attention than she herself does. Still, just like Griet and her parents, Cornelia doesn’t have the option to rebel against her father, so she torments her apparent rival instead.
Themes
Over time, Vermeer begins to assign Griet other errands, although he’s careful to avoid asking her to come to the studio except for her usual morning chores. Secrets can’t be kept easily in a house with so many people. One morning, she briefly stands in for the baker’s daughter, who has fallen ill. Vermeer has opened all the shutters, flooding the room with light. Griet begins to flush under his intense scrutiny, but she tries to quiet her thoughts and stand still. After a few minutes, he dismisses her to the rest of her tasks.
The fact that Vermeer confines his tasks for Griet to her usual morning session of studio cleaning suggests that he knows that using her will cause household conflict, even though he refuses to take responsibility for his role. In other parts of the book, light leads to greater understanding. Here, however, Griet experiences the potential danger of this exposure; she knows so little about Vermeer but feels herself yielding her own secrets to him, illustrating the unbalanced power dynamic in their relationship.
Themes
Griet watches the painting emerge slowly from its bottommost layers, carefully noting the way Vermeer works. Instead of making the shapes and outlines, he lays down patches of surprising colors: black where the blue skirt will be; red for the pitcher. One morning, she sets out a blue paint for the skirt, unasked. Vermeer insists that she bring him only the colors he asks for. But he also starts to teach her how he sees things. Beckoning her to the window, he asks the color of the clouds. She sees only white, until he presses her to explain why she used to separate white turnips from white onions when chopping vegetables. Looking again, her fresh eyes discern blue, yellow, and green in the white. Later, as the painting progresses, she begins to understand how the layers of pigment interact to create vibrant colors.
Vermeer shares knowledge with Griet that he doesn’t with anyone else in the house, even though others like Maria Thins and Cornelia seem to be almost as quick and perceptive as Griet. This exclusivity imbues their time together with a sense of intimacy and impropriety. Griet finds Vermeer exhilarating in part because he helps her to see the world around her in a new light that exposes the beauty and complexity of things that used to seem simple and mundane, like clouds.
Themes
Griet’s activities in the studio soon become harder to hide. One morning, Vermeer takes her up a ladder to the attic, where he has a mulling stone. He drops a piece of charred ivory and a sticky substance onto the stone and demonstrates how to grind them with the muller. When it’s Griet’s turn to try, he reaches out to correct her hand position. At his touch, she drops the muller onto the floor. He doesn’t touch her again, explaining with words instead. Griet grinds the black pigment, and a pleased Vermeer promises to show her how to grind easier substances the next day. Griet confesses that she doesn’t know how she will manage to do this time-consuming chore on top of her other task. Vermeer seems surprised by the number of Catharina’s former chores that Griet now manages alone. He says he will find a solution, which she thinks means he will talk to Catharina.
The attic—further removed from the rest of the house and its denizens—neatly represents the growing intimacy between Griet and Vermeer. The process of grinding pigments appeals more to Griet’s sensibilities than her other tasks. When she mentions these to Vermeer, he promises to help her, and she believes he will take responsibility for employing her in the studio and explain things to Catharina. But, as she will soon find out, he avoids the potentially uncomfortable conversation, looking instead for ways to get what he wants without having to be responsible for how his actions affect his wife (or Griet).
Themes
Vermeer promises to find a solution for Griet, and she assumes he will talk to Catharina openly about her new work. But he doesn’t. Instead, he capitalizes on Tanneke’s complaints about having to share her bed with the wetnurse to suggest that the family put a bed in the attic for Griet, allowing Tanneke to use the bed in the cellar. Catharina immediately dislikes this idea but gives in when she cannot find a viable argument against it. Maria Thins, on the other hand, maintains her own suspicions, but she doesn’t contradict her son-in-law’s wishes.
Because Griet lacks status in the household, she depends entirely on Vermeer to protect her. Doing so would require his telling Catharina how he has Griet working in the studio, but he fails to fulfil this obligation when he suggests the bed subterfuge. Because of her dual disadvantage—as a woman and as a maid—Griet must accept this choice and the consequences to her that will arise from it. The fact that neither Catharina nor Maria Thins contradict Vermeer, despite their obvious suspicions, also points to the limitations on women’s roles in this male-dominated society.
Themes
Sleeping in the attic makes it easier to grind the pigments, but Griet still has to work extra hard to find the time to do this in addition to the rest of her chores. She begins to invent reasons to visit the attic during the day, and gradually finds lying becomes easier and easier, even as she knows Maria Thins still suspects something. Having found a solution that gives Griet access to the attic, Vermeer leaves it to her to figure out how to complete all her work and maintain her own cover story. But the magic of the colors themselves more than makes up for all Griet’s trouble and stress. Soon, she makes all of them except the most expensive and precious—blue. Griet likes it best when Vermeer works alongside her in the attic, and she gradually grows more comfortable in his presence.
Griet treasures working on the pigments because it appeals to her artistic eye and her sense of orderliness—and because it brings her close to Vermeer, with whom she’s increasingly infatuated. But because Vermeer won’t come clean about employing her in the studio, it complicates her life, adding to her workload and requiring her to lie to the others. Vermeer arranges matters to maximize his own convenience, then fails to notice (or actively ignores) how this affects others. This is another example of how he abdicates mutual responsibility in his relationships.
Themes
One afternoon while Griet works on pigments in the attic, she hears Maria Thins enter the studio below. Maria worries about the model getting sick again and starts up the ladder, intent on sending Griet to fetch a footwarmer for her. Griet tries to scramble down, but Maria is faster, and she climbs up to the attic to find Griet covered in pigments. This confirms her suspicions, but, she notes, Vermeer has been working faster since Griet has been helping him. As long as that trend continues, she will protect Griet’s secret.
The household may revolve around Vermeer, but it’s clear that Maria primarily pulls the strings both domestically and in terms of the painter’s business. Although she knows that Vermeer’s increasing intimacy with Griet poses a threat to Catharina, she pragmatically tolerates it as long as it continues to contribute to the family’s financial stability. In this way, she’s also using Griet as a tool for her own ends, offering a reminder of how gender and class limit Griet’s autonomy.
Themes
The attic affords Griet more calm and privacy than the cellar; no one except Vermeer ever comes there. It also gives her more access to the studio itself, where she sometimes wanders around in the moonlit nights, imagining herself dressed in finery and sharing a glass of wine with the painter. Still, she dislikes being locked in by Catharina, who in turn dislikes the idea of the little maid freely wandering around the studio—a place she herself cannot enter.
Quiet, orderly, perceptive Griet likes the attic because it sits so far from the chaos and wildness in the rest of the child-filled house. But she also craves the studio for the sense of closeness it gives her to Vermeer; wandering around inspires fantasies about occupying a more important place in his esteem. The more time she spends in the studio, the more the studio comes to represent the competition between Griet and Catharina for Vermeer’s affections.
Themes
Maria Thins provides some cover for Griet’s activities in the studio, claiming to have sent the girl on errands when she disappears upstairs to grind pigments in the afternoons. Griet thinks that the children won’t notice, but she underestimates Cornelia. One afternoon while washing pigments, she hears the child call her from downstairs. Griet hurries to change her apron and descends the ladder, finding Cornelia standing timidly at the threshold, claiming that Tanneke needs Griet’s help. When they reach the top of the stairs, Cornelia feigns fear and asks Griet to go first. When Griet reaches the landing and turns to assist Cornelia, the child jumps—hard—into her.
Cornelia, in her own malicious way, proves herself to be just as observant as Vermeer, Maria Thins, and Griet are in theirs. But her innate wildness opposes and threatens Griet’s control. Readers should note, however, that Vermeer deserves the ultimate blame for creating the situation that Cornelia exploits. He abdicated his responsibility when he refused to be honest with Catharina about the chores he gave to Griet.
Themes
Griet brushes herself off and goes to the kitchen to find Tanneke, who snaps to attention and asks if Griet is bleeding; there’s a streak of red across her apron. On closer inspection, Tanneke realizes it’s powder, not blood, and as Griet hears Cornelia’s stifled giggle in the hallway, she realizes that the girl has managed to trap her. Somehow, she snuck into the attic, stole a handful of red madder powder and has been waiting to expose Griet with it. Tanneke, suspicious that Griet has been poking around in “the master’s things,” demands that she relinquish her apron for Catharina’s inspection. Desperate to keep the lady of the house in the dark, Griet orders Tanneke—in an unforgiveable, bullying tone of voice—to talk to Maria Thins instead.
Cornelia has greater insight into Griet’s relationship with Vermeer because she sees more of what goes on in the house than others—and she tries in this and other instances to use her knowledge to enlighten others like Tanneke and Catharina. Despite her habitual preoccupation with her own concerns, Tanneke also proves to be keen-eyed and observant when the situation warrants. The fighting and jockeying for power among the women also takes place within the limits imposed on women in a patriarchal society or household, such as this one, which revolves entirely around the aloof Vermeer. Finally, Cornelia’s access to the attic—and knowledge of Griet’s activities—foreshadows other discoveries she will make later in the book.
Themes
Whatever Maria Thins says to Tanneke works to keep her silent about Griet’s work in the studio. But the housekeeper becomes hard and mean, intent on making as much extra work as she can. She makes Griet feel isolated in a houseful of people. And this is why Griet can no longer pilfer treats from the kitchen for her family or tell them how hard it is to keep her secret—or, for that matter, confess that she likes grinding colors and working alongside Vermeer and that she likes how his body warms the room.
Tanneke, either out of personal jealousy or as a show of solidarity for Catharina, punishes Griet for her growing intimacy with Vermeer; women have limited agency in the broader culture of the 17th-century Netherlands and in the Vermeer household specifically. Tanneke can only express her displeasure by hurting Griet. Ashamed of the treatment but afraid to confess the reason, Griet resorts to dishonesty with her parents. The wildness of the Vermeer house—and her own ungovernable feelings for her master—pose increasingly great threats to her sense of order and self-control.
Themes
One April morning as Griet walks to the apothecary, she encounters Pieter, who’s out making a delivery for his father. He asks about her health and happiness; her red eyes and tired look make him worry that she has too much work. Anxious to protect Vermeer, Griet blames Tanneke for turning against her. Pieter confesses to hearing stories about Tanneke’s odd ways but also her extreme loyalty to the family. He tells Griet about the time Tanneke jumped into the fray when Catharina’s mentally ill brother attacked her in the street during her pregnancy with Johannes. Eventually, Maria Thins and Catharina got this brother confined, explaining why Griet has never met him. She wonders where Vermeer could have been during the attack, concluding he must have been away from the house at the time, or else he would have rushed to his wife’s defense.
Griet feels trapped by the limited number of roles society offers her as a woman. She’s unhappy in her domestic role and yearns for greater partnership with Vermeer. Yet, because he’s married, that relationship can’t go much farther without scandal. In contrast, Pieter offers her the possibility of a romantic partnership that suits her rank and status, but which doesn’t thrill her as much as her work in Vermeer’s studio. The story that Pieter tells her about Catharina’s mentally ill brother, while superficially about Tanneke, offers Griet another warning about Vermeer’s character—even in dire circumstances, he chooses his art over the needs of the people around him—which she fails to heed.
Themes
One Sunday in the spring, Pieter comes to Griet’s neighborhood church. Although he initially jokes that he’s trying out all of the Protestant churches in Delft, he quickly confesses that he came to see her and meet her parents. She’s embarrassed by his attention and protests that she’s too young to think of marriage. Pieter promises her that he’s not in a rush, even as he gently insists on meeting her mother and father. And although Griet promises her father that he’s not about to lose his last daughter, he confesses in a whisper his fear that he lost her the moment she became a maid.
By coming to the family church, Pieter takes his interest in Griet public and escalates his courtship of her. Previously, she could shrug off his attentions as market gossip, but he makes a bold move that requires her to give him a more definite answer. Either she encourages his attentions, or she needs to cut him off entirely. Although Griet tries to beg her youthfulness, her father’s words remind her that she functions as an adult, even if she doesn’t want to take adult responsibility for her choices and actions yet.
Themes
Pieter starts frequently attending the neighborhood church to visit Griet and her parents. Griet feels confused; when she talks to Pieter, she thinks about Vermeer. In May, Griet’s mother invites Pieter to dinner. Griet worries her parents will have to scrimp during the week to afford this. But she assumes they think of it as an investment, since having a butcher as a son-in-law will guarantee they won’t go hungry in their old age. Griet’s mother makes a fish stew and decorates the house with Griet’s father’s remaining tiles. After dinner, at her mother’s insistence, Griet walks with Pieter to the end of the street, where Pieter guides her into an alleyway and eagerly kisses her. He wants to know why she wears her cap so scrupulously, and what her hair looks like. She does not want him to see how untamable it—and she—is.
Griet’s parents encourage Pieter’s courtship in part because of their sense of responsibility to make sure their daughter is taken care of (in this society, she needs a husband to be secure), and in part because of their own needs. As their daughter, Griet falls under their authority until she marries, and thus doesn’t feel that she can refuse Pieter’s courtship outright, especially insofar as her parents encourage it. Her society, which deprives young women of autonomy and power, limits her choices. In the alley, however, Griet acknowledges more openly the wildness she's hinted at earlier. She tells readers that she does have desires—for autonomy, for love, for Vermeer—but that she still feels unable to express these due to the constraints and expectations placed on her. Thus, she continues to hide her true self under her demure cap and behind a mask of orderliness and control.
Themes
Vermeer borrows van Leeuwenhoek’s camera obscura to look at the tableau in reverse, then finishes the painting of the baker’s daughter. Maria Thins regrets that such a fine painting will go to the baker; she could have charged van Ruijven more for it. But the baker—a jolly and kindhearted man—loves it when he and his family arrive to claim it. He brings a present to the girls—a beautiful conch shell—and all the children play together in the studio. Cornelia instigates a game of jumping off the rungs of the attic ladder. Griet suspects Cornelia of making trouble, and when she goes to bed, she carefully inventories both Vermeer’s colors and her own possessions. But she cannot find anything missing.
As Pieter’s courtship of Griet intensifies, Vermeer’s studio again becomes a place of flux and change. The shift from his initial painting of van Ruijven’s wife to the baker’s daughter brought increasing intimacy between him and Griet, which generates suspense over what will happen between them with his next commission. Cornelia’s actions—suggesting as they do that she may have been snooping around in the attic again—contribute to the rising tension. The presence of the camera obscura in this section of the book suggests rather pointedly that nothing is as it seems, even if Griet can’t quite find the point of view necessary to gain insight.
Themes
It’s more than two months before Vermeer begins his next painting, a commission from van Ruijven, who wants a new portrait of his wife. But this time, he wants her to look at the viewer. Maria Thins and Catharina discuss this, wondering if van Ruijven has forgotten the scandal the last time he commissioned such a painting. Unable to ask anyone in the house, Griet eventually learns the story from Pieter. Several years previously, van Ruijven had one of his kitchen maids sit for a portrait wearing one of his wife’s fine dresses. He insisted that she hold a glass of wine and got her drunk at every session. She was pregnant with his child before Vermeer finished the painting. This story chills Griet to her core.
The incident with the maid in the red dress illustrates the limited power women—especially lower-class women—have in this society; Griet understands that van Ruijven’s maid cannot have said no to her master’s wishes even if she had wanted to. Yet the permanent consequences of the painting—both the child and the ruined reputation—fall entirely on the maid and not on the man who’s responsible. This scenario confirms Griet’s fears about those who use their power irresponsibly and selfishly, and it reminds her yet again of the necessity of maintaining control over herself and her reputation.
Themes
For the first time since entering the house, Griet gets to see Vermeer setting up his next painting. She’s in the attic grinding pigments when van Ruijven’s wife arrives for her first modeling session. She will be sitting at a table, wearing the yellow mantle and some of Catharina’s pearls. Vermeer sends Griet to fetch these, after which she lingers in the studio, watching Vermeer directing his model to position herself in various ways and try interacting with various props. When he disappears downstairs to fetch something, van Ruijven’s wife sits completely still waiting for his return. Griet feels frozen in place too, and it’s not until Vermeer allows van Ruijven’s wife to relax her pose that Griet feels she can slip from the room.
Van Ruijven’s wife presents something of an enigma to Griet: she’s much calmer and quieter than Catharina and the children. Yet her calm doesn’t seem to arise from self-control, like Griet’s or Vermeer’s, as much as from a lack of individuality. She is an ideal subject for Vermeer because she makes no demands and has no desires of her own, she merely allows herself to become the subject of his artistic eye. Griet understands what makes her a good model, yet fails to connect this to Vermeer’s character, even though it points towards his self-focused nature and willingness—even desire—to use and control people.
Themes
A few days later, van Leeuwenhoek brings his camera obscura back. Once again, Griet is grinding colors in the attic, and Vermeer calls her down to sit in the place of van Ruijven’s wife while they adjust it. Van Leeuwenhoek, a man with kindly eyes, greets her with a gentleman’s bow. Griet takes up the quill on the desk with trembling hands, hoping Vermeer won’t ask her to write with it, as she doesn’t know how to read much more than her prayer book or write much more than her own name. She holds her position while Vermeer and van Leeuwenhoek adjust the background and fall into casual conversation until van Leeuwenhoek—shooting a pity-filled glance at Griet—reminds Vermeer to let her go.
Van Leeuwenhoek perpetually lends his camera obscura—the instrument Vermeer uses to help him see more clearly—to the painter. This association serves to suggest that van Leeuwenhoek sees things more clearly than Vermeer does, and in this case, seeing also means valuing correctly. He bows to Griet when they’re introduced (remember how coldly Vermeer spoke to Griet in their first few interactions in the house), and, unlike Vermeer, he continues to remember that she’s a human being, not just another prop in the scene.
Themes
Griet looks through the camera obscura frequently during the next few days. Eventually, she starts to feel that the scene is unbalanced somehow. And once she realizes how—it’s far too neat—she waits for Vermeer to fix it himself. But he doesn’t. Eventually, Griet becomes so bothered by the sterility of the scene that she musses the blue cloth on the table herself, putting everything else back exactly. For the rest of the day, she waits anxiously for Vermeer to discover her bold change and scold her, but he says nothing. When she goes to bed, she peeks at the canvas on the easel to find that he’s sketched in the folds she created, tacitly approving her suggestion.
The camera obscura also gives Griet a different perspective on the scene. And unlike Vermeer, who fails to notice the imbalance in the composition, her new perspective does help her to see the image more completely. This also marks an important turning point for Griet, who has valued order and precision above all else up to this point. Yet it’s she who feels that excessive orderliness will make the painting sterile and lifeless; some disorder makes it seem real and vital. In the same way, she needs to find a balance between her desire for order and her own natural inclination towards a certain wildness.
Themes
The following day, Vermeer asks Griet why she changed the tablecloth. She answers that she thought the scene needed some disorder to contrast the sitter’s tranquility, and that she thought that mussing the cloth would do it well by echoing the curve of the model’s arm. After a long pause, Vermeer quietly expresses surprise at learning such a lesson from her.
Vermeer’s reaction confirms the correctness of Griet’s choice and her innate, artistic vision. By changing the scene, she both improves the painting and sends herself a message about how her life should be: her artistic change points towards the change she needs to make in her own life to live fully; in this instance, art creates—or at least sets the foundation for—change in Griet’s world.
Themes
One Sunday, Griet describes the painter’s ongoing work to her mother, father, Pieter, and Frans. Frans cares only about the cost of the valuables in the image, while Griet’s mother expresses strong disapproval of Vermeer’s works. She says that Griet’s description makes them sound like the religious paintings in a Catholic Church. Given how easily one can buy any old painting in Delft, Griet’s clear obsession with her master’s work alarms her mother. Griet tries to answer, but her mother cuts her off, accusing the Griet of forgetting who she is and that she comes from a good, Protestant family that doesn’t care about riches or fashions. Griet resents this outburst—especially her mother’s doubts about Vermeer’s greatness—but she recognizes its truth.
Griet’s mother intuitively senses the power of art to change the world. Even though she’s never seen any of Vermeer’s works, she understands that the way he sees—and portrays—the everyday actions of his subjects go beyond simple representation and captures deeper truths about their existence or life itself. But she fears the power of images to misguide and deceive people. In addition to her concern over her daughter’s obvious infatuation with Vermeer, her worries grow from one of the essential differences between Roman Catholicism, which for centuries used visual arts to teach and inspire emotional responses in its believers, and Protestant theology, which emphasized a believer’s direct, unmediated access to religious truths through reading the Bible. The early Protestant movement tended towards a distrust of images, especially ones that inspired emotional reactions in their viewers, thinking that this was an easy way for the unscrupulous to deceive the naïve.
Themes
The afternoon after her mother’s outburst, Vermeer’s good mood emboldens Griet to ask him if his paintings are “Catholic,” as her mother alleged. Vermeer reminds Griet that her mother has never seen the painting, so she cannot tell Griet what she should or should not see in it. Then he tells her that paintings cannot be Catholic or Protestant. They are like a candle in a dark room, allowing people to see the world around them more clearly. And just as it would be silly to describe a candle as “Catholic” or “Protestant,” so it would be silly to label paintings. Vermeer only converted to Catholicism when he married Catharina; having been both Protestant and Catholic, he finds more similarity than difference in the churches’ attitudes toward painting—and God—than most. Griet wishes her mother could hear Vermeer’s utterly convincing explanation.
Griet takes her mother’s concerns to heart, even if she resents them; she remains bound by the chains of mutual affection and obligation that bind families together in functional units. Vermeer articulates a theory of art’s power not unlike Griet’s mother’s, even if it casts art in a more favorable light. For Vermeer, the purpose of art is to show people truths about the world, lighting the darkness like a candle and pointing, in a variety of direct and indirect ways, towards the greater glory of God.
Themes
Between her personal dislike for Griet and the common assumption that all maids tend towards thievery, Catharina doesn’t like leaving her jewelry box in the studio at night. Maertge—who has taken to following Griet around as she does her chores—tells her that Catharina gave Vermeer an ultimatum: either the jewelry box or the maid must leave the studio. Griet’s heart sinks; she thinks Vermeer will obviously choose the jewelry box—so important to his painting—instead of her. She imagines a life of drudgery and housework yawning before her. She’s so upset that she bursts into tears when she arrives at the butcher’s and Pieter isn’t there. Pieter the Butcher takes delight in her reaction and confidently prophesies that she’ll soon be Pieter’s wife.
Catharina’s demands for the jewelry box pose a direct challenge to Vermeer, asking him to choose his wife or the maid who’s become indispensable to him. This suggests that she may know—or at least suspect—more than she lets on about their relationship and work. Griet knows that he’ll choose his own interests first, but she doesn’t yet see or understand how he’s been using her as an important source of inspiration for his work. And once again reflecting on her limited independence and autonomy, Griet connects the loss of the job her parents forced on her with their forcing her to marry the butcher’s son so they won’t go hungry in their old age.
Themes
Vermeer surprises Griet by compromising with his wife: every night he carries the jewelry box downstairs with him, and every morning she carries it back up and hands it to Griet, who places it back on the table. Somehow, through eavesdropping or observation, Cornelia realizes that there’s conflict around the jewelry box. Because she dislikes Griet for some unclear reason, she decides to make more trouble. One morning while Griet washes the laundry, Catharina appears in the kitchen. One of her tortoiseshell combs has disappeared. She clearly suspects Griet, who catches a glimpse of Cornelia peeking through the door, intent on watching the drama she instigated play out. Griet suggests that it may be in the jewelry box, prompting Catharina to climb the stairs to the studio. Griet hurries after, knowing that she alone can retrieve the box without upsetting the composition.
Vermeer seems to find a compromise that allows him to keep both Griet and Catharina content. But Cornelia introduces chaos to his carefully balanced composition when she steals the combs and frames Griet. Griet has carefully controlled herself and managed the household expectations during the months that she’s been helping Vermeer, but Cornelia’s actions remind her that she can only control herself. Chaos and chance still exist in the world around her, and she remains vulnerable to outside forces.
Themes
Griet brings the box to Catharina, who carries it downstairs, trailed by a smug Cornelia. Griet knows that Catharina won’t find the comb in it. She climbs the ladder to the attic where a surprised Vermeer momentarily pauses grinding pigments. But he resumes working while Griet opens her chest and finds one of Catharina’s combs in the place of her own—a family heirloom that her mother packed when she moved to Papists’ Corner. She sits silently on the bed, unsure what to do. Vermeer eventually asks what’s wrong, and she explains the situation to him, asking for his help.
Vermeer remains unperturbed despite the drama playing out among the other members of the household, insulated by his male authority and his general disinterest in concerns beyond his art. In contrast, Griet is doubly vulnerable, both as a woman and as a domestic servant in the household. She takes the one option she has (appealing to Vermeer for help), but this doesn’t give her any more power in the situation than she already had.
Themes
Griet remains in the attic while Vermeer descends the ladder, speaks to Catharina and Maria Thins, and the family tears the house apart looking for Griet’s comb. They find it in the shell the baker brought as a present for the girls a few weeks before. Griet suddenly realizes that Cornelia likely switched the combs on that day, using her innocent looking game to cover her trip to the attic. Vermeer has no interest in punishing Cornelia, and Catharina refuses to, leaving Maria Thins to beat the girl. Afterwards, Maria returns Griet’s comb to her in the attic, warning the girl that she’s made quite a few enemies in the house.
Despite his role in creating the drama, Vermeer refuses to take responsibility for any part of it. He continues to abdicate his responsibilities as a member of his family and to prioritize himself and his needs over everyone else’s, even when these create trouble for people, like Griet. Even Maria Thins holds Griet more responsible than Vermeer, suggesting that the girl could or should have done something to avoid his attentions and placing the blame on her in a way that highlights her limited autonomy in a patriarchal society.
Themes
Griet gathers enough courage to ask Maria what Vermeer said to defend her. Maria reports that he didn’t defend her, exactly. Instead, he criticized Catharina for failing to raise her children correctly. And he didn’t explain to his wife that he had asked Griet to assist in the studio. Maria did that herself, afterwards. Catharina isn’t happy about the situation, but she won’t do anything about it—for now. She fears Vermeer’s anger, and besides, she’s pregnant again. Griet can’t keep herself from expressing her shock, and although Maria instantly scolds the maid for forgetting her place, her face betrays concern about the growing number of dependents. Muttering to herself that the family has never had so much trouble with a maid, Maria descends the ladder. The next Sunday, Griet brings her comb back home, telling her mother it’s too fine a thing for a maid to keep.
Griet betrays her inappropriate interest in Vermeer to Maria, who seems unsurprised. Griet hasn’t been hiding things as well as she thinks. But even here, Vermeer refuses to take ownership of his feelings and choices, casting blame on Catharina and Cornelia for making trouble instead. And his abdication of responsibility keeps all the players in this drama locked in place for yet another round. Still, because the society privileges men, neither Griet nor even Catharina and Maria Thins have much recourse. They must all keep their places until the drama plays out.
Themes
After the comb incident, Catharina avoids Griet, who eventually realizes that her mistress fears her. Catharina also seems to have taken Vermeer’s words about the children to heart, and she begins to take charge of them more often. Maria Thins treats Griet with more respect, and Tanneke—either because it’s clear that Vermeer favors Griet or because she’s just gotten tired of the effort—stops her campaign of torment. Cornelia doesn’t change; she’s just as defiant and wild as ever. Griet quietly avoids her as much as possible and takes care to hide away her most precious possessions. Vermeer’s treatment doesn’t change either. But Griet feels indebted to him, unable to say no to any of his future requests. She doesn’t like this feeling, and she also wishes he would have shown his support for Griet by coming clean to Catharina about asking the maid to assist him.
Despite his refusal to come fully clean with his family about his use of Griet, by backing her up in the comb incident, Vermeer has raised her profile in the household—because in a patriarchal society or household, women gain power through their alignment with men. But even as she feels vindicated and relishes her newfound clout, Griet realizes that Vermeer has failed (or refused) to openly acknowledge her importance to him. Instead, he has shown her yet again that he will put his own interests ahead of any mutual obligation he may have to her or anyone else.
Themes
One afternoon in the middle of October, Maria Thins comes to visit Vermeer in the studio while Griet grinds pigments in the attic, where she overhears their conversation. Maria asks Vermeer about his plans for work—he has almost finished the portrait of van Ruijven’s wife—and presses him to suggest that van Ruijven commission a larger painting with multiple figures next. The family has debts and needs the money. Vermeer worries that van Ruijven will ask that “she be in it,” and Maria retorts that they will figure out how to handle that if the need arises.
For all her newfound rank in the house, Griet remains vulnerable to male coercion and control. Van Ruijven still wants to have his way with her. Maria’s concern seems to be founded in a shared sense of female solidarity, while Vermeer’s is harder to interpret: it’s unclear whether he wants to protect Griet or keep her for himself.
Themes
When van Ruijven and his wife arrive to see the finished portrait, Griet sets up the studio for them. Then she joins in dinner preparations with Tanneke, who informs Griet that she must help serve dinner to the guests—van Leeuwenhoek and the van Ruijvens—now that a teenaged Maertge can join them at the table. Griet feels surprised; Maria Thins tried to keep her away from van Ruijven last time. Nevertheless, she has ordered this arrangement.
Maria Thins protected Griet from van Ruijven before out of a sense of obligation to another woman subject to male coercion and violence. But now, to remind the girl that her role in the house remains vulnerable—and to assert her own limited power—she directly exposes Griet to van Ruijven’s attentions.
Themes
Tanneke and Griet carry food into a great hall thick with tension. Catharina glares at Griet while Vermeer looks pained and shoots angry glances at an impervious Maria Thins. Van Leeuwenhoek looks confused. Only van Ruijven seems delighted to see Griet, whom he gropes when she comes near enough. Tanneke does her best to protect Griet from van Ruijven’s advances, but Griet still feels his eyes on her. To distract herself, she focuses Maria’s industrious attempt to suggest the theme for van Ruijven’s next commission—maybe a music lesson, maybe a concert. Van Ruijven likes the idea, declaring that he himself will be in it, playing the lute—and that he wants Griet to pose as well.
The dinner party exposes the ongoing conflict over power in the household. At this moment Maria Thins has the upper hand. As expected, given the opportunity of proximity, van Ruijven treats Griet’s body as his personal plaything, rather than respecting her human autonomy. Maria Thins may have abandoned Griet, but a sense of female solidarity animates Tanneke as she does her best to limit van Ruijven’s access to the pretty, vulnerable young maid.
Themes
On Sunday, Griet’s mother confronts her about the rumors that van Ruijven has commissioned another painting from Vermeer and that Griet will be one of its subjects. Griet protests that her master has said nothing to her. Still, the idea that there might be something behind the gossip sticks with her, and she asks Pieter the Butcher about the rumors on Monday morning. He relates—with some anger at his son’s sweetheart—what he’s heard from van Ruijven’s cook. A few days later, Griet asks Maria Thins, expressing her concern that van Ruijven’s intentions are dishonorable. Maria assures her that Vermeer resists the idea of painting Griet, but she also notes that the family cannot alienate their wealthy and powerful patron. She tells Griet to say nothing for the moment and promises that the family will take care of her.
Maria Thins purposefully encouraged van Ruijven to want Griet in his newest commission. This allowed her to assert her power over the maid. Vermeer can’t say no to his patron without risking financial ruin for his family regardless of his feelings—Maria has recreated the choice he faced earlier between Griet/his own desires and the family/Catharina’s jewelry box, but with much higher stakes. Griet must tread carefully; only Maria can protect her from van Ruijven, and it’s clear she will only do so as long as Griet does what Maria wants her to.
Themes
Even though it would be easier to avoid Pieter, Griet respects him too much to do so. She looks out for him at the livestock market the afternoon after her conversation with Maria, finding him in front of a tavern with a friend. She asks him to walk with her and quickly notes his cool attitude towards her. She protests that she isn’t going to be in the painting, but Pieter reminds her how poor and powerless she is compared to van Ruijven, who has the upper hand in any interaction. Griet accuses Pieter of assuming she will lose her virtue like the maid in the red dress, but he reminds her that she can choose to refuse the wine.
Although she’s still unwilling to accept Pieter’s proposal and settle into a life of married respectability, Griet clearly respects his opinions, and she speaks more honestly with him than her parents. In return, he treats her as an equal. The concern he expresses about van Ruijven’s attention focuses Griet’s wellbeing, not himself. He's secure in his affections, unlike the jealous and possessive Vermeer. Still, as he notes, society vastly constrains her power in this situation.
Themes
Pieter’s attitude softens suddenly. He worries that Griet has fallen into the wrong world, and he promises that if she marries him, they will have a simple life, but one within their own control. Griet looks at his handsome, kind face and knows that she’s foolish to hesitate, but she sticks with her excuse that she’s still too young. Pieter tries a different approach. He asks Griet what goes on in the privacy of her own mind; although she seems always calm, he knows that something hides behind her eyes. Griet smooths her cap, asserts once more that there will be no painting and asks Pieter to avoid joining the rumor mill, even to defend her. She lets him kiss her in the alley for a few minutes before returning to the house. And despite her assurances to him, she knows deep down that neither Maria nor Vermeer will be able to refuse van Ruijven.
Despite his possessiveness and interest, Vermeer has never truly treated Griet as an equal. He trusts her with important tasks like cleaning the studio and grinding pigments, but when forced to make a choice between his own interests and her needs, he consistently chooses himself. Pieter offers, instead, a partnership of mutual love and obligation, a chance for Griet to move out of a subordinate position (first as a child in her parents’ house, then as a maid in Vermeer’s world) and into a place in society where she can have some real autonomy and control over herself. She claims to want this control, after all, even though Pieter recognizes her innate—and alluring—wildness. Yet, her feelings for Vermeer keep her stuck.
Themes
One day, three men bring a harpsicord and other instruments on a cart to the house. They struggle up the stairs with it, after which Vermeer calls down to Catharina, who disappears into the studio and begins to play the harpsicord. Griet learns, with some surprise, that Catharina plays well. Tanneke explains that Catharina learned to play as a girl, but that her father kept the harpsicord when Maria Thins left him. Griet wonders if Vermeer will use Catharina as one of the painting’s subjects, but Tanneke retorts that the young mistress cannot sit still enough.
Maria Thins’s separation from her abusive and violent husband proves that women do have some recourse even in this male dominated society, but only if they’re as savvy (and wealthy) as Maria. Griet has neither of these advantages. This is a rare moment in the book where Catharina occupies the studio instead of Griet, who listens in from a distance. Tanneke reminds readers of the difference between the two women: the wild and ungovernable Catharina could never sit still enough for Vermeer to capture her in a painting. In contrast, he has almost total control over Griet.
Themes
On the first day of work on the new painting, Maria Thins gives Griet a list of long, unusual, and mostly unnecessary errands to run, trying to keep her out of the house when van Ruijven arrives. She also allows Griet to stop for a visit with her parents. This surprises Griet’s mother, but she has a guest—a neighbor who loves market gossip—whose presence prevents her from asking many questions. Griet takes the chance to quash the rumors about her by loudly announcing that all the subjects for her master’s new painting are currently at the house, unlike Griet herself. Vermeer spends most of that evening at the tavern.
Maria made it clear that Griet’s safety depended on staying on her good side. Griet seems to have managed to stay in Maria’s good graces, so Maria conjures up a list of errands to keep her from van Ruijven’s grasp as work on the painting begins. Still, although safe for the moment, Griet remains vulnerable to the whims and decisions of others rather than having control over her own destiny.
Themes
When the models—van Ruijven, his sister, and one of his daughters—come again, Maria Thins sends Griet out on more errands. Uninterested in facing her parents’ questions, Griet decides to visit Frans. At the tile factory, she cannot find him where he should be, among the boys painting flowers and flourishes on the tiles. Instead, he works the kiln. He confesses that he got in trouble for trying to seduce the master’s wife. Griet demands to know how he could have endangered his position for an unattainable woman, but he shoots the question back at her: isn’t she in the same position with Vermeer?
Frans’s experience with his master’s wife serves as a cautionary tale for Griet; no good can come of her desire for a man who isn’t just above her social station but a married man and father of half a dozen children. She’s playing a dangerous game. Frans remains responsible for his own actions, even though his master’s wife got him in trouble. Likewise, no matter how tightly she controls her own desires, Griet cannot control the world, or the people, around her.
Themes
On her way back to the house, Griet passes van Ruijven and Vermeer in the street. She moves so that she will pass nearer to the painter than his patron. Van Ruijven notices and forces her to stop. He wants to know why she’s been avoiding him, and she mentions Maria Thins’s errands. As he and Vermeer begin to walk again, van Ruijven reminds the painter of his “promise.” Griet learns the nature of this promise the next afternoon when Vermeer calls her to the studio. She studies a painting hanging on the wall for the background of the music painting. This painting depicts an old woman as she sells a young woman’s sexual favors to a gentleman. Vermeer positions a chair, opens the shutters for light, and asks Griet to sit. She hasn’t escaped; he intends to paint her.
Although Vermeer didn’t want to paint Griet with van Ruijven, Griet can no longer escape the fact that he would very much like to paint—and by implication, know and possess—her. He has, after all, paid increasing attention to her since he caught her face in the light of the window at the end of the first chapter. Despite her hopes, Griet remains just a beautiful object to him. As always, he chooses the path that most suits him, and he shows that he isn’t above abusing his power over Griet just as van Ruijven wished to do, even if his intentions are less sexual (and therefore less dishonorable). The painting on the wall mirrors the situation, in an instance of art showing how the world really works. Griet has been commodified and has become an object for Vermeer and van Ruijven to possess and exchange.
Themes
