Underneath Vermeer’s ‘Milk Girl’ painting found an underpainting that baffles experts

Advanced scanning technology revealed two objects that were later painted in Johannes Vermeer’s The Milkmaid (1657-1658), providing a new perspective on the Dutch artist’s artistic process. art news

These “surprising” discoveries were announced at a press conference at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam on September 8, when a major Vermeer exhibition is planned for next year.
Final scans showed an underpainting, the first draft of the composition that provided the basis on which the painting was built. This underpainting originally included a jug and a fire basket and was later painted over by Vermeer.

“So much work has already been done on The Milkmaid that we never expected something so precise would emerge from today’s technology,” Taco Dibbits, the museum’s general manager, said in a statement.

The Dutch Baroque painter was famous for his depictions of home scenes from middle-class life. “The Milkmaid” depicts a young woman pouring milk from a jug into a bowl in the middle of the canvas. On the same table with the bowl are various items and a towel. Behind her, in a simple Dutch interior, a few baskets and a foot-operated stove hang from the wall.

Using new scanning technology, the researchers found a preliminary sketch of a young woman’s head in black paint depicting a jug with several jugs. The pitcher stand, a protruding wooden batten, was used in 17th century kitchens to hang pottery pots from their handles. Vermeer had a similar version in his home pantry.

A basket was also found in the lower right corner of the painting. The fire basket, woven from willow stems, was supposed to contain a bowl of glowing charcoal placed inside the basket to warm the newborn baby and dry the “nappy”. But objects are drawn from above, with a foot-operated stove, ceramic tiles and flooring. Vermeer, who had eleven children, also had a fire basket at home.