O Copo de Vinho

Vermeer was about 27 when he painted this, around 1660, still working out the manner that would make him famous. A woman sits drinking, her face hidden inside the glass she has tipped up, while a man stands over her holding a jug, ready to pour the next one. It looks like an ordinary moment of courtship, but Vermeer has left small warnings in the room. The coloured window beside them carries a figure holding a bridle, the old emblem of temperance and restraint, quietly commenting on the scene below. On the chair lie a lute and some sheet music, the props of the polite, musical wooing this couple would recognise. It is one of his earliest fully mature works, painted just as he learned to fill a plain interior with clear, even daylight.