How is Vermeer's Woman Holding a Balance both a genre painting and an allegorical vanitas painting?
What will be an ideal response?
Essay responses should include these points:
The painting shows a woman in the act of doing an everyday thing.
She holds a balance weighing her gold and pearls, a metaphor for eternal judgment.
A painting of the Last Judgment is seen behind the woman in the background.
The light catches the youthful face of the woman reminding the viewer that beauty is fleeting.
The theme of vanitas—the transience of earthly life—is shown in objects in the painting and inspires spiritual reflections on the fleeting nature of beauty, youth, and riches.
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