Collegiant Women Shaped Vermeer’s Art

Art historian Andrew Graham‑Dixon argues Vermeer painted almost exclusively for one Delft couple, Pieter van Ruijven and Maria de Knuijt, whose home hosted meetings of the radical Remonstrant/Collegiant movement. He claims the paintings form a unified, church‑like cycle meant for highly idealistic, largely female gatherings that prized pacifism, equality, and absolute freedom of conscience. This reframes Vermeer’s 'genre' scenes as a devotional program guided by women’s religious networks. — It reinterprets a canonical artist through the lens of women’s religious patronage and early liberal theology, highlighting how underground egalitarian sects shaped mainstream European culture.