Allegory of Faith. The Allegory of Faith, also known as Allegory of the Catholic Faith, is a painting created by Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer in about 1670-72.
The painting is currently located at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and has been since 1931. This and Art of Painting are his only works that fall under history painting in the contemporary hierarchy of genres, though they still have his typical composition of one or two figures in a domestic interior.
Both share several features: the perspective is almost the same, and at the left of each painting is a multicolor tapestry pulled to the left to disclose the scene. The Art of Painting also uses symbolism from Cesare Ripa.
Vermeer's Love Letter uses the same or a similar gilt panel. The Allegory and The Art of Painting differ markedly in style and purpose from Vermeer's other works.
Both allegorical paintings show complex meaning, but Allegory of Faith reveals that the artist's usual focus on naturalistic effects was a stylistic option, to be set aside when the subject called for another approach. The Art of Painting still reads as a naturalistic depiction of an artist and his model, and the pose of the model is simple, whereas the pose of the figure in The Allegory of Faith is Baroquely dramatic. The painting depicts a woman in a fine white and blue satin dress with gold trimmings. She sits on a platform a step higher than the