Le Christ chez Marthe et Marie

Almost everything people love in Vermeer, the quiet women in a corner of a room, the light from a window, comes later and much smaller. This is the exception, and it is early. It is by far the largest canvas he ever painted, and the only one he made from a Bible story. Christ visits two sisters. Martha, standing, has been busy in the kitchen and brings in bread. Mary sits at his feet just to listen, and when Martha complains, Christ gently tells her that her sister has chosen the better part. Vermeer was only in his early twenties here, working in a big-figured religious manner he would soon abandon entirely for the small domestic scenes. Martha leans in over the table with the loaves, caught in the middle of her complaint.