Analyzing Vermeer's Woman Holding A Balance

The Baroque piece of artwork, Woman Holding a Balance, is an oil painting by Vermeer and was painted in 1662-1665. This piece of artwork is a perfect example of portraying space and depth in a painting. The painting is very life like. A lot of work goes in to creating this type of illusion. When I looked more into this painting I was surprised to find out the type of technique that Vermeer used to create this painting. The technique he used is called camera obscura, so there is a box with a hole and a lens inside of it, inside of the box is painted white and you use different lens and mirrors to reflect the outside image inside. So when you do that it enhances the light and shadows which allows him see more detail of light and shadow on the surface and objects that wouldn’t be as visible to the naked eye. When

This helps brings the painting to life and look more real. The spacing is indicated by how the woman is overlapping the painting on the wall behind her which makes her appear closer to you and to show that she is in front. When you look at the size of the woman compared to the size of the painting behind her that is placed higher and looks smaller, it implies that she is in front and closer to you showing space. The vertical placement used in the painting gives the sense of depth you see. Since part of the painting is covered up by the placement of the woman it is creating a distance between them showing the depth. The table is located in front and diagonal with where she is and where the painting is, this shows that the table is closer in view than of the painting behind it also creating distance. The woman, table, and objects on the table all appear to be closer to the edge of the painting, which gives off the impression that there is space between them and the wall with the painting, which is high plane versus low plane