51 Introduction The restoration of Johannes Vermeer’s Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window enabled us to gain special insights into the stratigraphy of the painting. These insights are supported by scientific investigations yielding information on the colours used by the artist, as well as the binding media and, above all, the distribution of the colours in the painting. These findings can be compared with the extensive body of research data that now exists concerning other pictures by Vermeer.1 The uncovering of the background picture and removal of the overpainting along the margins of Girl Reading a Letter have made us partly revise previous descriptions of Vermeer’s painterly practice for this work.2 For this reason, we set out here to describe, in its complexity, the painting technique and genesis of the final composition. It has to be pointed out that the technical investigation, based on the microscopic survey of the surface, non-invasive measurements, and indepth analysis on samples taken for stratigraphic survey, primarily served to achieve an overview of the structure and condition of the painting prior to its restoration. As the pigments had already been analysed by Hermann Kühn in 1965,3 additional data was gained from cross-sections of samples taken mainly from the edges of the painting as well as from non-invasive macro-X-ray-fluorescence analysis (MA-XRF)4 of the whole painting. A limited number of new samples were extracted and analysed in the later phase of the project for the purpose of determining the binding medium and certain pigments. Figures 2 and 3 show all sites where samples were taken during these investigations (figs. 2, 3). The Canvas The fabric measures 83 × 64.5 centimetres. However, the measurements of the painted image itself are 77.5 × 60 centimetres. We are dealing therefore with an extended portrait format, one rarely used by Vermeer, with a height-to-width ratio of 1.29 : 1,5 a ratio only seen again later, around 1666, with the Girl with the Red Hat 6 (Washington DC, National Gallery of Art) and The Lacemaker (Paris, Musée du Louvre), dated to around 1669/70. The comparison of the canvas measurements with the units of measurement common in Holland at the time (although these varied from city to city) shows only an approximate conformity with the width of a Delft ell (Delfsche el ) of 68.3 centimetres. By contrast, when we account for a narrow tacking margin, the height of the painting roughly corresponds to three Amsterdam feet (Amsterdamse voet), equivalent to 84.9 centimetres.7 Comparable to other canvases used by the artist,8 the thread count ranges from 13 (average 12.64) to 15 (average 14.62) threads per square centimetre in both weaving directions.9 The fluctuations in the thread counts, in line with the manual production process, are determined by the differences in the thread thickness, which are between 0.2 and 1 millimetres. Spun with a Z-twist, the threads were woven in a simple linen weave, whereby due to the fluctuating thread thicknesses, areas with a more condensed fabric structure occur alongside smaller portions with a somewhat looser weave characterised by small gaps. One special feature of the Girl Reading a Letter canvas is the pronounced distortion of the weave. Drifting for up to 1 centimetre out of true in both directions, these cusps in the fabric mostly likely arose when the handloomed canvas was first put on a strainer to prepare it for sizing. Created during this vigorous stretching action, this primary cusping is Christoph Schölzel Christoph Herm Annegret Fuhrmann On the Painting Technique of Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window by Johannes Vermeer Fig. 1 Johannes Vermeer, Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, Detail Chinese plate
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTMyNjA1