The model
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The model

Using Iconologia by Cesare Ripa as a guide, Vermeer’s model clearly represents Clio, muse of history. She is defined optically by her connection to the map, the collar of her dress runs seamlessly into the bottom edge.

Historically the relationship between muse and painting is not without its conflict. When the Greek poet Hesiod sets down his canon with 9 muses, painting is not represented. This is still the case in the 17th century, with painters being regarded as craftsmen rather than artists.

Financially Vermeer and his colleagues would be better off as artists, who are exempt from taxation. Here, Vermeer’s muse is somewhat uninspiring and deliberately so. She is merely a model posing as a muse under his instructions. In fact it is the painter who inspires the model to portray the muse.

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