Allegory of the Catholic Faith
Johannes Vermeer
JOHANNES VERMEER, c.1670. OIL ON CANVAS.
The Dutch Republic of the 1600s was ruled by an aristocratic merchant class of predominantly Calvinists, a Christian branch that emphasised modesty, frugality, and hard work. To advance this belief system as the dominant understanding of the day, they outlawed the public practice of Catholicism, including Mass. Yet while the open display of faith was illegal, to believe was not, so Catholicism retreated inside, to private homes and personal churches built in living rooms and attics across the Netherlands. Johannes Vermeer, a converted Catholic through marriage, painted this, one of his rare allegorical works, in an act of defiant rebellion. Drawing on common symbolism, he paints the Catholic Faith as a woman, conquering the world and the keystone of Christ crushing the evil snake ahead of her. A tapestry is drawn back to reveal the scene, placing us in a ‘hidden church’ and so Vermeer is able, in this way, to stay true to his style of domestic scenes while making allusions to the largest of ideas. Each object is rich in meaning, and Vermeer tells a complicated story through a straightforward scene but the overarching feeling in the painting is one of defiance. Through hardship and rejection, faith will persevere and stand atop the world, broken, tired perhaps, but proud.