An unusually large canvas for Vermeer, this is one of the two known paintings of his that have explicitly allegorical content. Vermeer had converted to Catholicism at the time of his marriage, and this work may have been commissioned by a Catholic institution. The subject matter for this allegory obviously did not suit Vermeer's taste. In the Art of Painting (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), he produced, in spite of the intrusion of icono...