Many people know or have seen one of the famous Vermeer paintings, “Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window”
In 1979, X-ray images of this painting disclosed a Cupid painting on the background wall.
At that time, it was thought Vermeer had covered the Cupid by himself. However, the recent research in 2019 indicated that someone else had done overpainting on the Cupid.
The main focus of this exhibition is “Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window” after restoration revealing the image of Cupid from the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.
Also, we can see other masterpieces from this museum’s collection of Dutch artists, including Rembrandt, around the same era as Vermeer at Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
This exhibition starts with portraits of rich people in Holland in 17c., and white and black detailed print works by Rembrandt, Albert Henry Payne, and others.
These paintings and prints are excellent resources to know the lifestyle of the Dutch in 17century, though these works are as realistic and fully detailed as photos.
We can know the rich people in Dutch in 17c preferred black clothes, white head accessories, and gold jewelry.
Not only did they depict life realistically, but many paintings had allegoric meaning. Talking about art was an essential culture of the social life of the wealthy.
The subject of this exhibition focuses on the “Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window” display and its repair project.
In 1979, X-rays research revealed a Cupid on the wall, which has been painted over. And the restriction project started in earnest in 2017 and took four years to complete. This project needed careful, dedicated scientific research and highly skillful repair work.
The investigation has shown that after Vermeer’s death, someone painted over the Cupid. But the reason for this is not known.
At the time this picture was painted, Vermeer was not famous. Rembrandt was already a well-known painter, so people thought that this painting was by Rembrandt.
Some researchers think it could happen that someone tried to make this picture like more Rembrandt style.
The most interesting thing is this restoration changed the interpretation of “Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window”
Before the repair, this picture was thought to express the introspection of the girl. But when we see the Cupid painted on the wall is stepping on a mask, this picture might indicate that love conquers deception.
It was a very insightful exhibition to compare the painting with the repaired one.
It is a pleasure to see the cleaned-up picture, and master-pieces paintings with long history sometimes have secrets hidden until now. After discovering the truth, we will be surprised at how different the concept is from what we thought.
https://www.tobikan.jp/en/exhibition/2021_dresden.html