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www.privateairny.com Private Air | Winter 2021/2022 69 e woman in the Vermeer is holding a cittern, a type of lute used at that time as a symbol of love(often carnal). is is further reinforced by the removed shoes at the bottom of the scene, also a reference to undressing and sex. Both visually of course are pendants and likely refer to the earlier composition by Samuel Van Hoogstraten, the eminent painter and writer, also with two sandals at the bottom of the scene, suggesting what might be happening around the corner. All 3 pictures have a propped broom at the side, suggesting that daily tasks have been postponed for an amorous interlude. Van Hoogstraten was a bit of a Northern Renaissance man, admired by fellow artists for his art, writing and perspective box constructions. He was an accomplished portraitist, genre and trompe l'oeil painter. He expounded eloquently about the new purpose of painting in this new age of the "seen," in his Introduction to the Academy of Painting, or the Visible World.* e new purpose of art, he wrote, is to show the natural world. He was interested in tricking the eye via curtains , shadows, trompe l'oeil and his "peep show" boxes. e Slippers in the Louvre is dated to the early to mid 1660s and expressed his naturalistic views of art as much as a construction of rectangles within rectangles which must have attracted Vermeer and PDH. Vermeer, however, replicated more elements of the Van Hoogstraten, slippers, paintings, fabrics, tile pattern and painting style and the De Hooch, while more closely duplicating the Vermeer composition, is one step further away from the Van Hoogstraten. Although of different sizes, both Vermeer and the De Hooch side by side look like pendants. Both show half-draped curtains in the trompe l'oeil style leading us into the scene, with assorted items in the foreground, leaning broomsticks, the figures and then a glimpse into a farther room. While Vermeer always avoids taking us too far back and flattens things out, PDH lets us wander into a distant space. Although the PDH once bore a date 1668, the clothing and style point to the later 1670s. ere are also similarities with the model, dress and rug of the 1677 London work which implies it postdates Vermeer's version. I tried understanding the relationship between these pair of pictures backwards. Since Vermeer died in 1675 and PDH often depicted life events in his work, I expected to find some painted reference in the work of his close friendly rival. I looked this scene again, the last referential picture they did "together" and noticed a white jug unusually placed on the floor of the PDH. It is, in fact, a slight variation of the jug Vermeer made famous now in several of his pictures including the Music Lesson. Was this his last tribute to his friend? is jug very rarely appears in other pictures by PDH. Almst all of Vermeer's pictures expound upon the lateral voyage of light across the picture plane from left to right. Whether it is the daylight caressing the Girl with the Pearl Earring or the sliver of window light traveling from upper left to the lower right corner of most of his interiors, the light of his pictures moves laterally to us. is light is counter balanced by the dark flat maps and paintings that reinforce the 2 dimensional design. e basic structure of his work is flattened darks upon a sidelit plane. De Hooch on the other hand uses his contre-jour light openings and doorkijkjes against a more flattened dark plane. Here the light travels to us perpendicularly as geometric cavities of light on a dark surface. e picture plane folds in on itself in successive planes of light and dark that echo his doorkijkjes. Louvre National Gallery, London *original title: 'Inleyding tot de hooge schoole der schilderkonst: anders de zichtbaere werelt', published in Rotterdam, 1678 ART

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