I totally love this painting, a Vermeer called "woman with a lute". I love her dreamy multi-tasking as she twists the tuning on her lute strings, guiding herself by her own ear and doing the prep that natural musicians do. While she does this the light of the world shines on her face with harmonics testing and peaking. I wonder what she had gazed upon below? What was happening in her little world below while she plucked on that string and would it inspire the choice of composition she would play? Yet behind her is a map of the bigger world as known, darker and full of mystery and so carefully reproduced by Vermeer. She knows not America. Her music books on the table are closed, she has not yet chosen a piece to practice on. Could it be that Vermeer was on the brink of seeing something new being created. Perhaps a new melody that was just born, inspired by the world below all hesitant and shy of showing itself to the world for the first time? How tender this painting and the moment is. N'est-ce pas?
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