Mary / Madonna

'A painting representing the Mother of Christ in an oak frame' / Een schildery uitbeeldende de moeder Christi in een eyke lyst , in the Great Hall, room I.

The adoration of Mary was part of the Roman Catholic set of practices. See interfaith marriage. In the generally protestant Northern Netherlands Mary was therefore not often depicted. This is why there is no painting of Mary or Madonna in the Rijksmuseum.

In het Rijksmuseum Print Room (Rijksprentenkabinet) I did find the engraving: 'Mary Throning on Moon', 1607, 253x190 mm. Engraving by I. Matham sculps, after Abraham Bloemaert fec. Rijksmuseum inventory number OB:27064. Literature: B 69, H 111, R 103.

The Mary shown here is probably Italian and is dated around 1600. Copyright Browning Library.

Note : This object was part of the Vermeer-inventory as listed by the clerk working for Delft notary public J. van Veen. He made this list on February 29, 1676, in the Thins/Vermeer home located on Oude Langendijk on the corner of Molenpoort. The painter Johannes Vermeer had died there at the end of December 1675. His widow Catherina and their eleven children still lived there with her mother Maria Thins.

The transcription of the 1676 inventory, now in the Delft archives, is based upon its first full publication by A.J.J.M. van Peer, "Drie collecties..." in Oud Holland 1957, pp. 98-103. My additions and explanations are added within square brackets [__]. Dutch terms have been checked against the world's largest language dictionary, the Dictionary of the Dutch Language (Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal , or WNT), which was begun by De Vries en Te Winkel in 1882.

This page forms part of a large encyclopedic site on Vermeer and Delft. Research by Drs. Kees Kaldenbach (email). A full presentation is on view at johannesvermeer.info.

Launched December, 2002; Last update March 2, 2017.

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