Vermeer’s Pregnant Women. On Human Generation and Pictorial Representation

Abstract

According to legend, Vermeer's canvas acts like a flawless mirror: The picture is conjured onto it as though it is painted by Nature itself – the canvas reflects undistorted images of the real world. Vermeer seems to be a master in the art of describing; he paints with striking realism. But is there any truth to this legend? We well know that the female body was also seen as a speculum sine macula in the seventeenth century’s eyes. A two–thousand–year–old belief in human generation gave the power of procreation to men alone; the female body was a merely passive matter, a medium in which the embryo could grow. – Vermeer has painted pregnant women. But when we talk about Vermeer, we never ask about this belief, although it was in Delft, only a few streets away from Vermeer's home, that it was challenged and disproved for all time.

Three Giants in the Cradle of Reproductive Medicine; Reproduction Theories of the Seventeenth Century as Discerned by Pregnancy Portraiture in the Oeuvre of Jan Vermeer

“…Medical illustrations from the seventeenth century still depicted the pregnant stomach as a bud of a blossom opening up, petal for petal. 6 The similarity of human gestation to a seed giving fruit was portrayed by Leonardo De Vinci in his famous anatomy study on the gravid womb. 7 During the seventeenth century, long-established views on human conception were uprooted by newly made discoveries.…”

“… 8 In his letters to the Royal Society in London he included drawings of the spermatozoa ( Figure 2 ) that were the first known drawings of male sperm cells. 6 Van Leeuwenhoek rejected the idea of de novo creation of organisms, out of thin air ( Generatio Spontane of Aristotle, 384–322 BC). In his writings describing conception, procreation, and development of the human embryo, he speculated that these cells hold the seed of human life.…”

“…The male is the one who passes on the principle of life or the soul ( psyche ), the generative agent, whereas the female provides only the food for the developing embryo. 6 …”

“…It is also suggested that van Leeuwenhoek was a model for Vermeer’s paintings The Geographer and The Astronomer , his only paintings with predominant male figures. 2 , 6 Both van Leeuwenhoek and Vermeer had a passion for optics and for the properties of light. Vermeer was believed to have used a camera obscura for bringing details into his paintings following a suggestion by van Leeuwenhoek.…”

“…Dobell, a biographer of van Leeuwenhoek, the drawings of the spermatozoa ( Figure 2 ) that were sent to the Royal Society in London were in fact made by Vermeer. 6 As a member of the Royal Society in London, Reinier de Graaf was the one who introduced Antony van Leeuwenhoek to this distinguished circle. Both men attended the anatomic lessons held every week at the Delft Anatomy Theatre, which shared its locale with Delft’s civic guard, of which Vermeer was an active associate member.…”