A mysterious object depicted in two Johannes Vermeer paintings has been identified as a rare 17th-century Indian jewelry casket, providing fresh insights into the Dutch master's enigmatic works and his connections to wealthy patrons. The groundbreaking discovery was made by Alexandra van Dongen, a curator at Rotterdam's Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, and will be detailed in her upcoming book "De tastbare wereld van Johannes Vermeer" (The Tangible World of Johannes Vermeer), set for publication in the Netherlands on November 20.
Van Dongen's investigation focused on a distinctive casket that appears on tables in two of Vermeer's masterpieces: "Mistress and Maid" from the Frick Collection in New York and "A Lady Writing" housed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Both paintings were created between 1664 and 1667. The casket has been identified as Indo-Portuguese, crafted in the 17th century in the port city of Cochin, now known as Kochi in southern India, by skilled local artisans for European buyers.
These remarkable caskets represent a unique fusion of Indian and Portuguese design elements, constructed from precious teak and ebony woods. Such items are extraordinarily rare today, and Van Dongen successfully tracked down what may be the only surviving example with assistance from Amsterdam dealer Dickie Zebregs. This surviving casket is currently part of the Tavora Sequiera Pinto collection in Porto and is scheduled to be displayed next year at the Museu das Convergência.
The presence of such an expensive object in Vermeer's paintings raises intriguing questions about how the artist gained access to it. These types of caskets would have been extremely costly in 17th-century Holland, making it nearly impossible for Vermeer to have purchased one himself. However, his accurate depiction of the casket in both paintings suggests he had direct access to an actual example in his studio, indicating he must have borrowed or been given temporary use of such a precious item.
Van Dongen's research points to Maria de Knuijt as the most likely source of the casket. De Knuijt served as Vermeer's greatest patron and is believed to have purchased at least 20 of the artist's approximately 37 known paintings. Together with her husband Pieter van Ruijven, she provided crucial financial support that allowed Vermeer to develop his distinctive artistic style. Significantly, de Knuijt was not only wealthy but also held major shares in the Dutch East India Company, which maintained extensive trading operations between the Netherlands and India.
This connection makes it entirely plausible that de Knuijt specifically requested Vermeer to include her precious casket in both "Mistress and Maid" and "A Lady Writing," both of which are believed to have been part of her personal collection. Regardless of the exact circumstances, the clear correlation between the painted and real caskets demonstrates Vermeer's commitment to depicting beautiful objects with remarkable accuracy and attention to detail.
The Indo-Portuguese casket is not the only Asian object featured in Vermeer's work. Van Dongen also identified a 17th-century Japanese lacquer box decorated with gold powder in "Woman with a Pearl Necklace" (1662-64), which is housed at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. This Japanese box would have arrived in Holland via Nagasaki, where the Dutch were the only Europeans permitted to trade with Japan during that period. The box was likely used to store jewelry or grooming accessories, and given the timeframe and de Knuijt's trading connections, it too probably belonged to Vermeer's patron.
Van Dongen's research extends beyond exotic luxury items to more commonplace objects in Vermeer's paintings. She examined the earthenware cooking pot featured in "The Milkmaid" (1658-59) at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, identifying it as having been manufactured in Oosterhout, located about 60 kilometers south of Delft. These distinctive pots were designed to stand on three legs, though in Vermeer's painting, those legs are cleverly obscured by pieces of bread.
Vermeer's access to such everyday pottery items would have been straightforward, as he operated his family's Mechelen tavern in Delft's market square alongside his artistic pursuits. This dual occupation provided him with intimate knowledge of common household objects. Van Dongen's comprehensive analysis reveals that the objects appearing in Vermeer's paintings span the entire spectrum from luxurious exotic imports to everyday domestic items, yet all are rendered with the same meticulous realism that characterizes the artist's extraordinary attention to material detail.
