Room and Narrative Project - Painting Choice

I chose to base my project around the 17th Century painting by Nicolas Maes called "The Virtuous Woman"

The following words are what I believe most effectively reflect the emotive and phenomenal qualities of the painting.

Privacy
Contemplation
Refined
Divine

Shadow
Radiate
Enclosure
Rich Darkness

The following research outlines the meaning and narrative of the painting.

“Developed a forceful style in which colours emerge out of a haze of rich darkness and light glows upon fabrics and objects. Composition is especially interesting in Maes' works from this period, for it is arranged to make the most of the effects of chiaroscuro lighting. One of his works, in fact, was one of the earliest to represent light coming from an inner room to illuminate a foreground subject. His themes were typically domestic household incidents, moments of rest from chores, or studies of older people”

http://www.dropbears.com/a/art/biography/Nicolaes_Maes.html

“In his early years he concentrated on genre pictures, rather sentimental in approach, but distinguished by deep glowing colours he had learnt from his master. Old women sleeping, praying, or reading the Bible were subjects he particularly favoured” http://www.essentialvermeer.com/dutch-painters/masters/maesbase.html
By the 1650s he had developed a reputation for painting the intimate life of women and children; his finest pictures capture aspects of Rembrandt's tenderness and intimacy"

“use the compartmentalizing of the interior space to represent the division of functions which existed in Dutch homes of that date. Part of the appeal of Maes' work lies in the combination of humour and dignity which which he treats his subjects and in the relation of complicity that he establishes between the figures and the spectator through gestures such as a gaze or a raised finger indicating silence, devices borrowed from the theater. However, what makes Maes a key figure in the history of interior painting is his manner of representing space, which would influence both Vermeer and De Hooch. In Maes' work, the figures are subordinated to the space, which becomes the main vehicle for the story that is narrated”

Alejandro Vergara, Vermeer and the Dutch Interior, Madrid, 2003, p. 210. http://www.essentialvermeer.com/dutch-painters/masters/maesbase.html