The painter

The figure of the painter has several unique features. His slashed doublet and beret belong to an educated man of standing. The similarities here with the figure in Vermeer’s The Procuress suggest a self-portrait. But what is more interesting is that Vermeer has consciously broken the laws of perspective in his work. Comparing the shoe size of the seated painter with the floor tiles would make the latter about 27cm long, which translates to a diagonal length of about 38cm. This makes the seated height of the painter around 137cm, giving him a full body length of over 190cm, which would be highly unusual for the time.

Using the same unit to measure Clio, the model would only be 137cm tall. It soon becomes clear that Vermeer has significantly altered the mathematical perspective. Since the model is nearly twice as far away from the observer as the painter, Clio should only be half as large as she is depicted here. But model and painter are around the same size.

But despite all these alterations the scene seems true to life at first glance. And it disproves the suggestion made by art historians that Vermeer used a camera obscura to create the painting; the technique reproduces an upside-down image but nevertheless one that is true to scale. Vermeer places his signature in the bottom border stripe. It’s the biggest signature he ever marks a painting with; but then at 100cm x 120cm this is also his biggest piece.