Art Appreciation

Are We Seeing Pregnant Women In These Paintings When There Are None?

Why interpreting art is not always easy

Woman in Blue Reading a Letter (c.1663) by Johannes Vermeer. Oil on canvas. 46.5 × 39 cm. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Image source Wikimedia Commons

Interpreting paintings undoubtedly relies on an accurate reading of the contents of a work. But what happens when appearances are misleading?