About the Cover Art
Jan Vermeer,Woman Holding a Balance, ca.1664. Oil on canvas,
1 3 –^78 1 2 . National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (Widener
Collection).JANVERMEER(1632–1675) was the preeminent painter of Dutch domestic interiors. Women figure
prominently in Vermeer’s paintings, which are idealized depictions that reflect the social values of the
17th-century Dutch middle class. In Woman Holding a Balance,a young woman wearing a veil and a fur-
trimmed jacket stands before a table on which are spread her most precious possessions—pearl neck-
laces, gold chains, and gold coins. But neither the woman nor her treasures are the focus of the viewer’s
attention. Rather, Vermeer drew the viewer’s eye to the center of the canvas and the balance for weighing
gold that the woman holds in her right hand. The scales, however, are empty—in perfect balance, the way
Ignatius of Loyola advised Catholics (Vermeer was a Catholic convert in the Protestant Dutch Republic)
to lead a temperate, self-aware life and to balance one’s sins with virtuous behavior. The mirror on the
wall may refer to self-knowledge, but it may also symbolize the sin of vanity, as do the pearls and gold.
Bolstering this interpretation is Vermeer’s inclusion of a large framed painting of the Last Judgmentde-
picting Christ as weigher of souls. Therefore, this tranquil domestic scene is pregnant with hidden mean-
ing. The woman holds the scales in balance and contemplates the life she must lead—a life free from the
temptations of worldly riches—in order to be judged favorably on Judgment Day.
The trio of covers for this enhanced 13th edition ofArt through the Agesfeatures one work each of
painting, sculpture, and architecture, dating from the fourth century BCEto the 1990s, by one man, one
woman, and one anonymous artist. The selection mirrors the content of the book as a whole, which sur-
veys the art of all periods from prehistory to the present and worldwide, and examines artworks and
buildings of all types, signed and anonymous, in the context of the cultures in which they were created.