Art and neuroscience: how the brain sees Vermeer's Woman Holding a Balance
Authors: Carlos Hugo Espinel
Journal: The Lancet (1998)

"Let there be light." —Genesis1Genesis 1:1. The Bible. King James version (1611). Thomas Nelson Inc, Nashville1973Google Scholar Johannes Vermeer's Woman Holding a Balance is a small, plain-weave linen canvas. This study is about how we see a painting, not only with the eyes but also with the brain. She is alone (figure 1). The room is dark. Only a ray of sunlight comes through the window. She is standing by the table. Her head is a little tilted to the left, her eyes cast down, her mouth closed. In her right hand, she holds a balance. She wears a headpiece, a winter jacket, an ample skirt. A mirror hangs on the wall in front of her, a painting on the other. A carpet, a jewellery box, coins, pearls, lie on the table. Black and white tiles cover the floor. The sunlight reveals the colours—the yellow in the curtain, the blue in the carpet and her jacket. It discloses details, such as the curtain's folds and her skirt's orange-red and yellow stripes. It reveals forms, like those of her tender face and her abdomen. She seems to be pregnant. Her fullness is not merely due to the width of her garments, the fashion of the time.2Carstensen R Putscher M Ein Bild on Vermeer in medizinhistorischer Sicht.Deutsches Arzteblatt-Arzliche Mitteilungen. 1971; 68: 1-6Google Scholar, 3Cunningham FG Human pregnancy: Obstetrics in broad perspective.in: Williams Obstetrics. 20th edn. Appleton & Lange, Stamford1997: 1-11Google Scholar, 4Wheelock AK Vermeer and the art of painting. Yale University Press, New Haven1995: 97-103Google Scholar She has clinical signs: her pallor, the hint of oedema, her protruding abdomen. One enters the painting as a physician seeing a woman with child. She is surrounded by foreboding signs: the darkness, the coldness, even the painting on the wall which represents The Last Judgement. Does she notice them? She is calm, peaceful. Vermeer, born in Delft, Holland, in 1632, remains elusive. There is no certified portrait of him; nor do available documents, birth certificates, receipts, or letters, characterise him.4Wheelock AK Vermeer and the art of painting. Yale University Press, New Haven1995: 97-103Google Scholar, 5Blankert A Johannes Vermeer van Delft 1632–1675. English edn. Oxford University Press, New York1978Google Scholar, 6Broos B Un celebre Peijintre nomme Vermeer.in: Johannes Vermeer Exhibition catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC1995: 47-65Google Scholar, 7Wright C. Vermeer. London: 1976.Google Scholar It is a masterpiece such as Woman Holding a Balance that attests to his genius. Vermeer died in 1675. Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, the first to see bacteria through a microscope, was the executor of Vermeer's bankrupt estate—of unsold paintings and debts.4Wheelock AK Vermeer and the art of painting. Yale University Press, New Haven1995: 97-103Google Scholar, 5Blankert A Johannes Vermeer van Delft 1632–1675. English edn. Oxford University Press, New York1978Google Scholar, 6Broos B Un celebre Peijintre nomme Vermeer.in: Johannes Vermeer Exhibition catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC1995: 47-65Google Scholar, 7Wright C. Vermeer. London: 1976.Google Scholar Vermeer had 14 children, so it is thought that his wife, Catharina, is the woman in the painting. However, neither documents nor his other paintings confirm this. Any pregnant woman might be the "woman holding a balance". Art scholars and scientists have laboured to unlock the secrets of this painting. In it they have sought political and religious symbols. They have related its effects to the camera obscura, examined the canvas, dissected its layers, analysed the pigments, scrutinised each brush stroke. They have radiographed and studied it with advanced diagnostic equipment.4Wheelock AK Vermeer and the art of painting. Yale University Press, New Haven1995: 97-103Google Scholar, 5Blankert A Johannes Vermeer van Delft 1632–1675. English edn. Oxford University Press, New York1978Google Scholar, 6Broos B Un celebre Peijintre nomme Vermeer.in: Johannes Vermeer Exhibition catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC1995: 47-65Google Scholar, 7Wright C. Vermeer. London: 1976.Google Scholar, 8Gifford M Painting Light: Recent observations on Vermeer's painting technique. National Gallery of Art, Department of Research Conservation and Painting Technology, Washington, DC1997: 186-199Google Scholar, 9Kuhn H A study of the pigments and the grounds used by Jan Vermeer.in: Report and Studies in the History of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC1968Google Scholar, 10Wadum J Contours of Vermeer.in: Gaskell I Jonker M Washington National Gallery of Art, Washington DC1998: 201-219Google Scholar But no-one has asked how we see this magnificent illusion. Light enters the eyes with images. Neuroscientists have discovered that in the retina, light is converted into an electrical signal, which the optic nerve takes to the brain. But on its way, an image is separated along at least three different pathways—magno, blob, and parvo (subsystems that have different acuity and capacity)—into its motion, depth, colours, and forms. The image is reassembled in the higher centres of the brain.11Kandel ER Schwartz JH Jessell TM Principles of neural science. Elsevier, New York1991: 400-480Google Scholar, 12Livingstone M Hubel D Segregation of form, color, movement, and depth: anatomy, physiology and perception.Science. 1988; 240: 740-749Crossref PubMed Scopus (2246) Google Scholar, 13Hubel DH Eye, brain and vision. Scientific American Library, New York1995Google Scholar, 14Zeki S Colour vision and functional specialisation in the visual cortex.Discuss Neurosci. 1990; 6: 1-64Google Scholar Here I show how we see Vermeer's Woman Holding a Balance. On the canvas' flat surface, how do we see her inside a three-dimensional room? Space in the painting is rendered with Brunelleschi's mathematics of perspective.15Kemp M Linear perspective from Brunelleschi to Leonardo.in: The science of art. Yale University Press, New Haven1990: 9-30Google Scholar The lines of the mirror and the table, apparently parallel and receding from us, converge in one vanishing point, next to her right hand, a white dot on the radiograph (Figure 2, Figure 3). This device places her image in front of the table.Figure 3Radiograph (upper right segment)View Large Image Figure ViewerDownload (PPT) Positioned in the foreground, she blocks from view part of the room. Her body is proportional to, and her size consistent with, the objects. Shading rounds her features, gives her garments depth. Daubs of paint render the jacket fur rough; wet on wet brush strokes render her skin smooth. Psychologists and neuroscientists have demonstrated that it is with geometry of shapes, position, sizes, texture, that we locate real objects in space.16Gombrich EH The image and the eye. Phaidon Press Limited, London1994Google Scholar, 17Arnheim R Art and visual perception: a psychology of the creative eye. The new version. University of California Press, Berkeley1984Google Scholar The neurons involved in seeing space, the magno subsystem, process the information independent of colours.11Kandel ER Schwartz JH Jessell TM Principles of neural science. Elsevier, New York1991: 400-480Google Scholar, 12Livingstone M Hubel D Segregation of form, color, movement, and depth: anatomy, physiology and perception.Science. 1988; 240: 740-749Crossref PubMed Scopus (2246) Google Scholar, 13Hubel DH Eye, brain and vision. Scientific American Library, New York1995Google Scholar, 14Zeki S Colour vision and functional specialisation in the visual cortex.Discuss Neurosci. 1990; 6: 1-64Google Scholar I found that this knowledge was relevant when examining Vermeer's painting. Technical analysis uncovered the painting's sketch and showed it to be of a neutral colour.8Gifford M Painting Light: Recent observations on Vermeer's painting technique. National Gallery of Art, Department of Research Conservation and Painting Technology, Washington, DC1997: 186-199Google Scholar This sketch includes the image's geometry, position, size, and shading, which, I suggest, contribute to the depiction of depth. In addition, note that the components of space conserve their value in the black and white photograph (figure 2). The mathematical aspects are obvious. The shading deepens the fabric folds, whether yellow in the curtain, blue in the jacket, or black as in the photograph. Woman Holding a Balance, therefore, presents visual effects of space that satisfy brain requirements for the perception of reality, including rendering depth independently of colour. Depicting transparency has engaged the genius of, among others, Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt.16Gombrich EH The image and the eye. Phaidon Press Limited, London1994Google Scholar, 17Arnheim R Art and visual perception: a psychology of the creative eye. The new version. University of California Press, Berkeley1984Google Scholar, 18De la Croix H Tansey RG Kirkpatrick D 9th edn. Gardner's art through the ages. Renaissance and modern art. Vol II. Harcourt Brace, New York1991Google Scholar How does Vermeer succeed? On close inspection one discovers subtle shades of colours in the areas between objects. The wall illustrates this well (figure 4). The colours—yellows, blues, and greys—intermingle and recede into the darkness. But from a distance one cannot distinguish the hues. In seeing the real world, colours blend in the distance, especially when they are in fine patterns or intermingled,16Gombrich EH The image and the eye. Phaidon Press Limited, London1994Google Scholar, 17Arnheim R Art and visual perception: a psychology of the creative eye. The new version. University of California Press, Berkeley1984Google Scholar an effect shown by Masaccio and Leonardo and applied by the impressionists and Seurat in his pointillist paintings.18De la Croix H Tansey RG Kirkpatrick D 9th edn. Gardner's art through the ages. Renaissance and modern art. Vol II. Harcourt Brace, New York1991Google Scholar Brain neurons that process colour, the blob subsystem, have low acuity and cannot separate hues in the distance.12Livingstone M Hubel D Segregation of form, color, movement, and depth: anatomy, physiology and perception.Science. 1988; 240: 740-749Crossref PubMed Scopus (2246) Google Scholar, 13Hubel DH Eye, brain and vision. Scientific American Library, New York1995Google Scholar, 14Zeki S Colour vision and functional specialisation in the visual cortex.Discuss Neurosci. 1990; 6: 1-64Google Scholar It is possible that when seeing Vermeer's painting, one's visual system blends the subtle hues, mixes them with the interplay of light as it passes through, and perceives them as neutral, as if transparent. One senses the presence of something in the space between the objects, but one sees nothing. It is like perceiving air. Stereo microscopy studies disclose neat borders between contrasting colours, specifically in any object under direct light,8Gifford M Painting Light: Recent observations on Vermeer's painting technique. National Gallery of Art, Department of Research Conservation and Painting Technology, Washington, DC1997: 186-199Google Scholar, 9Kuhn H A study of the pigments and the grounds used by Jan Vermeer.in: Report and Studies in the History of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC1968Google Scholar, 10Wadum J Contours of Vermeer.in: Gaskell I Jonker M Washington National Gallery of Art, Washington DC1998: 201-219Google Scholar such as her face (figure 1). Masaccio in his 1428 frescoes of the Brancacci Chapel, Florence, showed that borders of contrasting colours bring out forms.18De la Croix H Tansey RG Kirkpatrick D 9th edn. Gardner's art through the ages. Renaissance and modern art. Vol II. Harcourt Brace, New York1991Google Scholar, 19Espinel CH Masaccio's cripple: a neurological syndrome. Its art, medicine, and values.Lancet. 1995; 346: 1684-1686Abstract PubMed Google Scholar In the past few decades, neuroscientists have identified a group of brain neurons, the parvo subsystem, which, with high-resolution capacity, specialise in processing these borders.12Livingstone M Hubel D Segregation of form, color, movement, and depth: anatomy, physiology and perception.Science. 1988; 240: 740-749Crossref PubMed Scopus (2246) Google Scholar, 13Hubel DH Eye, brain and vision. Scientific American Library, New York1995Google Scholar, 14Zeki S Colour vision and functional specialisation in the visual cortex.Discuss Neurosci. 1990; 6: 1-64Google Scholar In Vermeer's painting it is such a border that forms her face. The edge between the alabaster tone of her face and the dark blue shadow of her headpiece draws her profile. The light bathes her and we see her lovely face. In art, as in medicine, it is often the detail that reveals the critical sign. In trying to understand Woman Holding a Balance, one discovers several details in the borders of contrasting colours; for example in the curtain fold, above the mirror, a vertical line of the strongest yellow (figure 4) that radically contrasts with the juxtaposed blackness of the wall. This line carries the light into the room. In examining her from the head down one finds another detail that is of diagnostic importance—a yellow line on her skirt that contrasts radically with the darkness of her jacket lining (figure 4). The line starts high at her waist and rounds her abdomen, and, opening the jacket, brings out the pregnancy. Her trunk in alignment, her bust in front of the frame of the painting on the wall, like a portrait within a portrait, she holds the balance (figure 1). How is it that we see her image as if suspended in time? White highlights in her head-dress, fur, and fingernails connect her action of weighing—highlights, radiography shows, that are of a white lead pigment, of high luminescence (figure 3). Note that they are contrasted, precisely, with surfaces without luminescence (figure 1): the head-dress and fur with the flat tones of the painting on the wall; her fingernails with the dull black frame. What is the visual effect of this device? Psychologists and neuroscientists have found that perception of motion, and stillness, depends on luminescence.12Livingstone M Hubel D Segregation of form, color, movement, and depth: anatomy, physiology and perception.Science. 1988; 240: 740-749Crossref PubMed Scopus (2246) Google Scholar, 13Hubel DH Eye, brain and vision. Scientific American Library, New York1995Google Scholar, 14Zeki S Colour vision and functional specialisation in the visual cortex.Discuss Neurosci. 1990; 6: 1-64Google Scholar, 20Cavanagh P Boeglin J Favreau OE Perception of motion in equiluminous kinematograms.Perception. 1985; 14: 151-162Crossref PubMed Scopus (71) Google Scholar This can also be seen in art. In Mondrian's paintings, colour stripes when juxtaposed, if equiluminescent, seem to be moving. The brain (the magno subsystem) requires a contrast in luminescence to fix objects in space.12Livingstone M Hubel D Segregation of form, color, movement, and depth: anatomy, physiology and perception.Science. 1988; 240: 740-749Crossref PubMed Scopus (2246) Google Scholar I suggest that in Woman Holding a Balance, the luminescence contrast between the woman and her background stabilises her pose, and enables the viewer to fix her action in space. At first it seems that a dark, blue, cold, sombre sentience dominates her surroundings—in the wall, the carpet, her jacket (figure 1).18De la Croix H Tansey RG Kirkpatrick D 9th edn. Gardner's art through the ages. Renaissance and modern art. Vol II. Harcourt Brace, New York1991Google Scholar Then one discovers devices that change the mood. Stereo microscopy uncovers underneath the blue a reddish brown, subduing its tone.4Wheelock AK Vermeer and the art of painting. Yale University Press, New Haven1995: 97-103Google Scholar, 8Gifford M Painting Light: Recent observations on Vermeer's painting technique. National Gallery of Art, Department of Research Conservation and Painting Technology, Washington, DC1997: 186-199Google Scholar Next, yellow joins the composition—in the curtain, the frame, the coins, her skirt. Yellow contrasts with blue, and is associated with fire, with light. But in this painting yellow is in equilibrium with blue. The yellows, of light, are few but intense, whereas the blues of her environment are abundant but subdued. The result is a balance of light and darkness, a pleasing harmony. And together with her gentle face, her quiet gesture, one senses serenity, that peace emanates from her. The light comes in and illuminates her. The shadow of the nail on the wall, horizontal, straight, indicates its direction, but at its entrance, in the curtain, it is a vertical line, yellow, intense (figure 4). Polarising light microscopy and radiography studies show that this line is of the same substance as the one that curves her abdomen (Figure 3, Figure 4)—a lead tin yellow pigment capable of carrying the highest luminosity.8Gifford M Painting Light: Recent observations on Vermeer's painting technique. National Gallery of Art, Department of Research Conservation and Painting Technology, Washington, DC1997: 186-199Google Scholar, 9Kuhn H A study of the pigments and the grounds used by Jan Vermeer.in: Report and Studies in the History of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC1968Google Scholar This discovery hints at Vermeer's secrets. It speaks of his meticulous, exact planning; perhaps it uncovers a message. It is as if in the end, as Vermeer applies the last strokes of his creation, he looks at it, and draws what he had planned all along. His is a studied, a deliberate, action. He dips his fine brush into the brightest yellow. He paints the vertical, the straight line of light. And then, using the same pigment, perhaps the same brush, he begins high at her waist. At first it is a gentle touch with the tip of the brush, a faint line; then he moves down pressing on the brush, thickening the line as he curves it; he eases the brush, to a fine line, and finishes the rounding of her abdomen. To see this detail in Vermeer's painting requires attention, neurons with sustained response, with high resolution capacity, as those of the parvo subsystem.12Livingstone M Hubel D Segregation of form, color, movement, and depth: anatomy, physiology and perception.Science. 1988; 240: 740-749Crossref PubMed Scopus (2246) Google Scholar, 13Hubel DH Eye, brain and vision. Scientific American Library, New York1995Google Scholar The image comes together in the higher centres of the brain. And one perceives a meaning.21Espinel CH Caravaggio's "II amore dormiente": a sleeping cupid with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.Lancet. 1994; 344: 1750-1752Abstract PubMed Scopus (16) Google Scholar The woman carries the promise of a new life. This integration of art and neuroscience presents a new way of seeing Vermeer's Woman Holding a Balance. It applies knowledge of how the brain sees to explain visual effects. It suggests that an illusion succeeds when it satisfies brain requirements for the perception of reality, and finds a humanistic interpretation in the brush strokes.