} Oil on canvas, 36.3 x 30.7 cm. function closeSignupBar() { hree facts that may very well change the way you see it. In his orderly designs, he gives new life to familiar patterns of contemporary genre painting by closely studying the subtleties of appearance. In particular, Maria de Knuijt, the wife of Vermeer's patron Pieter van Ruijven, might have found the chaste dignity which signals Vermeer's interpretations of femininity particularly appealing. An unseen window to the left casts soft light on her visage. C251). Wayne Franits, Vermeer, 2015. The choice imbues the figure with a celestial, floating quality. Giovanni Cassini determines rotations of Jupiter, Mars and Venus. Bernini finishes high altar, Saint Peter's, Rome (begun 1656). } + '