Today, I went to an art exhibition,
"Making the Difference: Vermeer and Dutch Art"
(From 2018.10.05 till 2019.02.03)
at The Ueno Royal Museum in Japan.
I found a picture, "Woman Reading a Letter" by Gabriel Metsu.
This picture is like below,
(Figures of this article are linked to Web Gallery of Art.)
and is a pair with another picture, "Man Writing a Letter" by Gabriel Metsu."
I heard these pictures' story is that
a man is writing a letter (a love letter)
and a woman received his letter and is reading it crazily.
(This interpretation is from a record book of this exhibition.)
This girl seems to be reading this letter words without showing to her maid next standing her.
But this maid understand what is written in that letter.
And a picture of a wrecked ship in a storm behind a partly opened curtain
shows a proverb "love is as hazardous as a sea voyage."
(I cited English representations of this Proverb from Web Gallery of Art. Thank you.)
"Oh! What serious happens!", I want to say.
And more and more I looked at this picture.
(From here, my added interpretation starts.
No comment is in a concern page of Web Gallery of Art
and in a record book of this exhibition.) What this Maid has
is
"a bucket!"
So this wise looking maid notice a way of this girl's love
and has already prepared to a future wreck event (her lost love), I see.
This maid must not sink this ship,
that is, her serving girl.
(In a case of her lost love, this girl will be truly in a serious status.)
So,
what we must always do in a case of a wrecking ship
is pulling out sea water from a ship
(that is, from this girl)
by this bucket,
because a sinking ship has much amount of water.
(I think that sea water is this girl's tears.
If so, this maid will want to wipe her tears.
Do I think too deeply?)
This bucket is a very important work device.
So this smart maid makes "a helping deployment"
and perfectly has prepared and is waiting in her heart, I see.
(To love affairs, no one without lovers selves can not do anything.)
From this view, this maid's pose could be looked
that of a gentle and dependable maid
who has a future sight and a risk management plan
and says, "Oh, my. This time love will (also?) fail.
I will have to support and help her firmly.
From now, I must prepare a bucket for pulling out water (for wiping her tears)."
(Arrows on that bucket show an upward direction.
And their means may be a role of goods for bring a ship up more than the water surface.
That bucket's drawings are strange for an usual bucket.
I think that Metsu drawn them purposely.)
And one more,
we look a ship's bow in a back mirror of a girl (instead of her back).
Its means are that she is a ship, that is, she begins rowing (this love starts and can not stop).
<Additional Writings> 2018.11.28 (GMT)
Another reading of a bucket's pattern
I find another reading.
When we pull out water from a sinking ship,
we move a bucket in a arrows direction.
We can read such meanings from a bucket's patterns.
<Additional Writings 2> 2018.12.19 (GMT)
more reading of a bucket's pattern
A direction of arrows, upward, means "for cheering that girl up",
that is, that bucket is a helping goods.
(I wanted to show "cheer up meaning" by words, a helping goods.
But words lacked for my purpose.)
Cautions for Japanese Edition.
I think that a ship's bow in a back mirror of a girl (instead of her back)
means that she is a ship.
(In English Edition, I put in the main part.)
