Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

Vermeer's Christ in the House of Martha and Mary from around 1654-55, in the Scottish National Gallery, is his earliest surviving work and his only known biblical painting. The young Vermeer depicts the moment when Christ defends Mary's contemplative devotion against Martha's complaint about her sister's failure to help with domestic work. The painting's large scale and its subject mark it as a conventional history painting, showing Vermeer before he discovered the intimate domestic interiors that would become his signature.

The early technique shows the influence of the Utrecht Caravaggists in its warm palette and strong chiaroscuro. The broadly painted figures, rendered on a scale much larger than Vermeer's later works, demonstrate an accomplished but still developing command of oil painting.