The Girl with the Wine Glass

Johannes Vermeer painted this elegant interior around 1660, showing a woman accepting a glass of wine from an attentive gentleman. A second man slumps at the table, possibly having had too much. Brilliant red satin and stained glass windows create rich color harmonies typical of Vermeer's mature work.

The scene may carry moral undertones about temperance and seduction, common in Dutch Golden Age painting. Vermeer's luminous technique and psychological ambiguity raise the genre scene. Now at the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Braunschweig, Germany.