2-976-006 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Milkmaid, c.1660. A maid concentrates keenly as she pours milk from a jug. It is a quiet, tranquil scene. The only movement is the flow of milk. Vermeer turned a simple composition of a prosaic subject into an intense work of art. It is in the rendering of light that Vermeer truly excelled, painting tiny dots for highlights, as on the bread and the blue cloth.