Vermeer’s Pregnant Women. On Human Generation and Pictorial Representation

According to legend, Vermeer's canvas acts like a flawless mirror: The picture is conjured onto it as though it is painted by Nature itself – the canvas reflects undistorted images of the real world. Vermeer seems to be a master in the art of describing ; he paints with striking realism. But is there any truth to this legend? We well know that the female body was also seen as a speculum sine macula in the seventeenth century’s eyes. A two–thousand–year–old belief in human generation gave the power of procreation to men alone; the female body was a merely passive matter, a medium in which the embryo could grow. – Vermeer has painted pregnant women. But when we talk about Vermeer, we never ask about this belief, although it was in Delft, only a few streets away from Vermeer's home, that it was challenged and disproved for all time.