Johannes Vermeer’s Mistress and Maid: new discoveries cast light on changes to the composition and the discoloration of some paint passages

Abstract

Among the thirty-six paintings ascribed to the Dutch seventeenth century artist Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), Mistress and Maid, in The Frick Collection, stands out for the large-scale figures set against a rather plain background depicting a barely discernible curtain. Although generally accepted as among the late works of the artist and dated to 1667-1668, for decades scholars have continued to puzzle over aspects of this portrayal. When the painting was cleaned and restored in 1952, attempts to understand the seeming lack of finish and simplified composition were hampered by the limited technical means available at that time. In 1968, Hermann Kühn included Mistress and Maid in his groundbreaking technical investigation 'A Study of the Pigments and the Grounds Used by Jan Vermeer. ' In the present study, imaging by infrared reflectography and macro-X-ray fluorescence (MA-XRF) revealed significant compositional changes and drew focus to areas of suspected color change. Three of the samples taken by Hermann Kühn, and now in the archive of the Doerner Institut in Munich, were re-analyzed, along with a few paint samples taken from areas not examined in the 1968 study, using scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and Raman spectroscopy. These analyses made it possible to further visualize detailed compositional elements in the background of the painting that were later painted out, and to characterize darkening and color changes in different paint passages.

First Steps in Vermeer’s Creative Process: New Findings from the National Gallery of Art,

“…50), and in microscopic samples and magnified examination of the painting, there is no evidence of a green-colored underpaint, as has been observed in some other works by Vermeer. 49 Microscopic analysis of new paint samples confirms what we inferred from the copper map: that Vermeer used a copper drier more liberally in his underpaint. SEM-EDS analysis of a minute paint sample taken from the tablecloth, a cross section that includes both the surface and underpaint layers, found low levels of copper dispersed throughout the paint (typical of verdigris used as a drier, rather than discrete particles of verdigris pigment).…”

Discovering the evolution of Jacques-Louis David’s portrait of Antoine-Laurent and Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze Lavoisier

“…MA-XRF is a powerful method that, in addition to providing maps of the elemental distributions, together with visual and microscopic analysis often allow establishing the location of the mapped elements within the stratigraphy of different areas [6][7][8][9][10]. However, in many cases the sources of some of the elements detected and mapped are multiple and the same element may be present in different layers in the same paint passage [11,12]. In the study of this portrait, microscopic samples were taken from seven locations in order to help interpret the MA-XRF results and to assess the colors of the sitter's garments, the furniture and its decoration, the background, and other features in the hidden composition (all of which have implications from an art historical perspective).…”

Microchemical Imaging of Oil Paint Composition and Degradation: State-of-the-Art and Future Prospects

“…Within studies of oil paint, Raman scattering has mostly been applied in microspectroscopy experiments where only one or several spatial points are analyzed (Chen-Wiegart et al 2017;Higuchi et al 1997;Keune et al 2013;Mahon et al 2020;Monico et al 2011Monico et al , 2013Monico et al , 2014Otero et al 2014;Spring and Grout 2002;Trentelman et al 1996). In some studies, where resolving spatial distributions is of crucial importance, raster scans are performed (Cato et al 2017;Lau et al 2008;Monico et al 2015bMonico et al , 2020aRopret et al 2010).…”