Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...

scene, to contrast with her tranquility. Something to tease the eye. And yet it must
be something pleasing to the eye as well, and it is, because the cloth and her arm
are in a similar position” (135-6). Thus the novel shows a young woman
beginning to think like an artist about structural composition. Her interpretive
ekphrasis here again goes a step further since she not only reflects on the formal
qualities of the work, but moreover, her interpretation is able to guide her own
creative impulse that leads her to a conscious, deliberate action. Furthermore, this
ekphrasis demonstrates Griet’s increasing self-confidence as a result of her self-
reflective contact with art. Whereas before she did not want to share her aesthetic
experiences with Vermeer, she now has no scruples explaining her aesthetic
deliberations to the painter.
The film changes not only the picture she helps him with by using a
different one, but also her reason for the change. Here, it is Woman with a Water
Jug (ca. 1664-65) in which Griet makes a much more noticeable alteration,
removing a chair that stands in front of the model. And here, her explanation of
that change is of a psychological rather than aesthetic nature, stating that the girl
in the picture “looked trapped.” While this is also an interpretive rather than a
depictive ekphrasis, it is related to the painting’s content rather than its formal,
aesthetic qualities, and is a more personal, instinctive response rather than the
result of a conscious thought process. With her answer Griet may well be
projecting her own feelings about her place in the Vermeer household and her
relationship with the painter. Though attracted to his world of art, she is
nonetheless conscious of the impermeable barriers imposed by her own status and
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