A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal

Vermeer made this around 1670, and left a clue on the back wall for anyone who wanted to read the room. Above the woman at her keyboard hangs a painting of Cupid, the god of love, holding up a single card. That image came from an emblem book of 1608 whose motto ran that a lover ought to love only one. So this is a picture about faithfulness, the instrument and the empty chair beside her hinting at someone expected. The National Gallery keeps a companion nearby, a woman seated at the same kind of instrument, and the two are often read as opposite kinds of love, one loyal and one for sale.