Focus on The Allegory of Faith and discuss the Provenance.
Vermeer's imaginative use of symbolism in the painting indicates to Wheelock that the painter was not given specific instructions on the allegory but chose the various items himself. The original owner is unknown but may have been a Catholic in Delft, possibly the Jesuits in the city. The Metropolitan Museum of Art website states, "This late work was surely commissioned, probably by a patron who was learned as well as devout."The painting was one of those apparently not among the 21 works by the artist collection of Vermeer's main patron, Pieter Claesz van Ruijven (1624–1674), and auctioned off in the Dissius sale of 1696. Its first known owner was Herman Stoffelsz van Swoll (1632–1698), a postmaster and a Protestant. That Swoll was familiar with collecting art is indicated by the fact that the best man at his wedding in 1656 was a famous collector, Gerrit Reynst. The year after Swoll's death, in 1699, the painting was auctioned off in Amsterdam along with other works in Swoll's collection (which included Italian works). The sale catalogue described the work as "A sitting Woman with deep meanings, depicting the New Testament", and also stated, "powerfully and glowingly painted". After spending time in an unknown collection, the painting (described as "depicting the New Testament") was auctioned off in 1718, again in Amsterdam. It was auctioned again in 1735 (described as "artfully and minutely painted"), and in the Ietswaart sale of 1749 (described as "as good as Eglon van der Neer"). The mixed fortunes of Vermeer's reputation in the 18th century can be seen in the prices paid for the painting at these various auctions: f 400 in 1699; f500 in 1718; f53 in 1735; f70 in 1749).By the early 19th century the painting apparently had found its way to Austria, where it was depicted in the background of Portrait of a Cartographer and His Wife by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller in 1824 (now in Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Münster). Atlases depicted in this painting contain maps primarily of Vorarlberg and Tirol at the western end of Austria, so perhaps the painting was in that area, according to Wheelock. At the end of the century, the painting (at that time mistakenly attributed to Eglon van der Neer) was part of the collection of Ilya Ostroukhov (and later Dmitry Shchukin) in Moscow, making it the fourth Vermeer owned by Russians at that time. In 1899 it was put up for sale by a dealer, Wächtler, in Berlin. That year Abraham Bredius bought it for about DM 700. A Dutch newspaper at the time praised Bredius for the purchase: "With this acquisition of the new Delft Vermeer, the New Testament, as an Eglon van der Neer, Dr. Bredius has once again found a bargain with his perspicacious eye." Bredius then loaned the work to the Mauritshuis, where it remained for the next 24 years, until 1923 when Bredius gave it to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam for a long-term loan.Bredius disliked the work, calling it (in 1907) "a large but unpleasant Vermeer". In 1928, he sold it through the dealer Kleinberger to Michael Friedsam in New York, who bequeathed it in 1931 as part of the Friedsam Collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it has remained.
Eglon van der Neer symbol Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller New York Vorarlberg Abraham Bredius Amsterdam Jesuits Mauritshuis Tirol Gerrit Reynst Jesuit Westfälisches Landesmuseum Ilya Ostroukhov Münster Dmitry Shchukin Delft Rotterdam Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Metropolitan Museum of Art