ABSTRACT
For Thoré, the Sphinx of Delft seemed to have appeared ex nihilo [out of nothing]. Scholars are still uncertain who his teacher was and have offered very different answers. The three earliest works now assigned to him, and still disputed in one case, are large Italianate history paintings entirely unlike his medium-size genre scenes (Plate 2). His efforts culminated in his still unexplained Procuress (Plate 3). This chapter addresses Vermeer’s teachers and primary artistic influences, attributes a new painting to him as his earliest extant work, and follows his development as a young history painter seeking to synthesize the main streams of Western tradition. His Procuress will be explained as the foundation for his mature vision based on his self-conscious turn to his native tradition and his use of family as models and family secrets as his inspiration (Plate 3). The mystery of Vermeer’s origins and the riddle of his distinctive originality derive from his exceptional, chameleon-like capacity to internalize both other artists’ ideas and his own environment.
