The oil painting depicts a richly dressed woman playing a
virginal in a home with a tiled floor, paintings on the wall and some of the locally manufactured
Delftware blue and white tiles of a type that appear in other Vermeer works. The identities of the paintings on the wall are not certain, according to the National Gallery, but the landscape on the left may be by either
Jan Wijnants or
Allart van Everdingen. The second painting, showing
Cupid holding a card, is attributed to
Caesar van Everdingen, Allart's brother. This motif originated in a contemporary
emblem and may either represent the idea of faithfulness to a single lover or, perhaps, reflect the presence of the virginal, the traditional association of music and love. In addition, the ground applied to the canvas of each painting appears to be identical and also to be shared with the New York
Young Woman Seated at the Virginals. The painting is depicted in
David Hockney's 1977 oil painting
Looking at Pictures on a Screen. ==See also==