1-154-102 - Art Media/Heritage Images

'Allegory of the Faith', c1670. Vermeer's source derives from a standard handbook of iconography, Cesare Ripa's Iconologia. Vermeer interpreted Ripa's description of Faith with the world at her feet literally, showing a Dutch globe published in 1618. The divine world is rendered as a glass sphere reflecting the room. The painting of the Crucifixion on the wall copies a work by Jacob Jordaens. Among the many Christological symbols, the most prominent are the apple, emblem of the first sin, and the serpent (Satan) crushed by a stone (Christ, the cornerstone of the Church). Dating about 1670, the work strikes a balance between abstraction and haunting similitude. From the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, U.S.A.