A Girl Asleep

The Sleeping girl is a created by Jan Vermeer in 1657 oil painting is 87.6 inches high and 76.5 inches wide. It is now on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Image description

In the picture, a woman sits at a table. She has her eyes closed and her arm supports with his head on the table. In the foreground, the tablecloth is raised and there are a bowl of fruit and a wine carafe on the table. This untidiness of the foreground contrasts with a sparse background. Through the open door, the viewer can also look in the next room.

With the help of X-ray examinations has been demonstrated that Vermeer had originally created a different background. So was in the room behind the woman and man in the door of a dog.

Importance

With the carafe in the foreground Jan Vermeer alludes to the enjoyment of wine. The idle state of women is due to this pleasure, which was also included in the titling of the image. So it was on sale on 16 May 1696 Amsterdam Een Dronke slafende Meyd aen een panel ( a drunken, sleeping girl at a table ). In a further sale in 1737, the image with Een van de Delfse van der Meer ( A sleeping young woman from Van der Meer of Delft) was slapent Vrouwtje, titled.

The woman pictured is not a maid, but leaves as their expensive clothes suspect a wife who manages the household. Her pose can be interpreted in two ways. First, it could be a gesture of melancholy such as in the image of Christ with Mary and Martha. More likely, however, is that they should represent inertia, which was considered a mortal sin in the medieval theology.