내면으로 시선을 향하다, 베르메르 ‘저울을 든 여인’

The light comes in through the window. The woman standing alone in the light is wearing a blue velvet jacket with a white hood. She is standing in front of the table and looking at the onion scale in her hand. The scale is so delicate and subtle that it is difficult to even know that she is holding it. There is a jewel on the table with a gold chain and a pearl necklace. There is a coin at the end of the table. And the blue cloth is hung as if it were indifferent. One of the painters representing the 17th century, the golden age of the Netherlands, Johannes Vermeer, has painted beautiful and peaceful works with clear and soft light and color harmony. He, who did not gain much fame in his life, died in 1675. It was only after 150 years that a girl with a pearl earring, one of his paintings, became well-known and made her name known to the public. Vermeer's painting, The Woman Holding a Scale, is a symbolic work that contains values, judgment, purity, and elegance. On the back wall of the woman in the painting, there is a work depicting a scene from The Last Judge. A figure surrounded by a yellow halo is floating in the air with his arms raised, and other figures are looking at him from both sides with him in the middle. It may be a coincidence, but they are placed on both sides of the woman's head as if on both arms. The things on the table indicate that the woman is a rich class. You can see what kind of life she leads through the fur and high-quality material on her clothes. But she's putting something else on the scale, not the valuables. The scale, which has nothing on it, is not the value or weight of the valuables, but the attitude towards it, and it is judging the weight. And she closes her eyes to look inward to judge her rich background and attitude towards things. As a result of the scale, things are not thrown away or changed to something else. She put it on the scale because it was her attitude, not the things. In order to reach God, the attitude of the soul, not the material of reality, is important. Also, we can see that her soul is heading to heaven based on the clothes worn by the woman in the picture. The yellow color of her skirt symbolizes her faith in God, and the blue color of her jacket is related to the Virgin Mary, meaning truth and love. And the white color of her hoodie symbolizes purity. The fact that she values ​​her inner soul and mind, not the value of things, and tries to look inside can be better seen through the arrangement of the picture behind her and her. The characters located at the bottom of the picture are struggling to go to heaven at the top of the picture. She is wearing a white hoodie that shows purity in confusion among the characters in the dizziness on both sides of her head, and she is looking inside, not in front of her. And God is hovering over her head as if watching her. Vermeer put a woman on a scale, not a thing, and saw her look inside and described it beautifully. A woman who looks inside, not a material that shines in reality under the warm light, finds true beauty and has a peaceful smile.