The Milkmaid

The Milkmaid

After Eighty Years War, the Dutch golden age began and spanned  for the rest of 17^th Century. The end of the conflict in 1648 marked the beginning of prosperity in the new Dutch republic, enabling the country to become the most successful in Europe in terms of art, science, and trade (Van Deursen 31). Johannes Vermeer’s The Milkmaid (1658) reflects the inherited traditions of detailed realism similar to those of early Netherland.

The Milkmaid is an oil canvas painting that shows a kitchen maid as a low-ranking servant rather than a woman milking a cow. The housemaid is pouring milk carefully in a plain room into an earthenware container on a table. The young woman depicted is sturdily built and is wearing a blue apron and a crisp linen cap. The milking job and kitchen work were reserved for women in the Dutch society. In addition, kitchen maids and milkmaids were highly reputed as predisposed to sex or love. It is because of this reason that The Milkmaid is slyly suggestive of this prevailing Dutch culture.

Furthermore, The Milkmaid depicts a woman as a subject of male desire. For example, the painting represents a woman that threatens the security and honor of the home, which was central to Dutch life. It was rare for Vermeer to paint a neutral picture that treated maids in a dignified and empathetic way because as an artist, his intention was to exemplify the existing tradition. A careful examination of the painting indicates an erotic element conveyed through gestures.

In Dutch society, milk was referred to as Meliken to connote luring or sexual attraction. The reference originated from peeking on farm girls as they worked under cows. Besides, there is a depiction of cupid to imply female arousal. The artist represented the female anatomy using a wide mouthed jug, which demonstrates the extent at which the Dutch society was consumed by brothel scenes. In fact, The Milkmaid is part of a European social context where men of higher social ranks interacted romantically with maids. Notably, the artists like Johannes Vermeer produced paintings marketable to individuals of higher social ranks, hence a need to focus on female gender (Franits 17a).

            Moreover, Vermeer paid tribute to the virtues of hard work, purity and temperance characteristic of Dutch women. For instance, the symbolic image of a woman pouring milk from one vessel to the other is a symbolic traditional indication of temperance. The artist also renders a well-polished copper pot hanged on the wall to symbolize purity in the young nation.

 Throughout the composition, hard work is evident because there is no comfort or concession to appearance. Instead, the painter presents the audience with a working environment that features roughly textured bread, rough walls, coarse baskets, and a bluntly-featured maid. All her focus is on to make an appetizing dish for the family using stale food as was common in the society. The foot-warmer is placed on the floor next to the standing maid’s knees. The audience can take this depiction as a token of Dutch women’s virtue because according to the 17^th-century European culture, women used foot warmers while seated. However, in the painting, it appears discarded to symbolize the industrial nature of the standing maid.

In summary, Vermeer’s The Milkmaid focuses on a woman in the Dutch society as a desirable subject. The prevailing culture dictated that milking and kitchen chores were reserved for women as reflected in the art. However, it is arguable that that the artist’s work reflected the industrious nature of kitchen maids and milkmaids. In the modern European society, gender equality is prevalent, unlike in the past when men suppressed women (Franits 45 b).

Works Cited

Franits, Wayne E. Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting: Its Stylistic and Thematic Evolution. Yale University Press, 2014 a: 1-94. Print.

Franits, Wayne E. Paragons of Virtue: Women and Domesticity in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art. London: Cambridge University Press, 2013 b: 1-65. Print.

Van Deursen, A.  Plain Lives in a Golden Age: Popular Culture, Religion, and Society In Seventeenth-Century Holland. Cambridge University Press, 2011: 11-83. Print.