Vermeer's Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

In the Vermeer painting Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, the latter sits at Christ’s feet while Martha stoops to offer him a loaf of bread in a wicker basket.

Johannes Vermeer, Christ in the House
of Martha and Mary, 1654 - 55 

The National Gallery of Scotland (its place of residence) describes this piece as one of the largest that Vermeer had created and the only known one covering a biblical topic. 

This painting shows an artist seeking a path. According to the National Gallery of Scotland (NGS), this picture "belongs to a small group of very early works which show the artist experimenting with various techniques and combining various influences in Dutch and Flemish art. ... The strong play of shadow and light, the characterization of the figures and broad handling of paint were probably inspired by the work of artists from Utrecht, who in turn were in turn inspired by Caravaggio's art" (The chart below shows my characterization of the path from Caravaggio to these "Utrecht Caravaggisti").

But it also provides flashes of the mastery that would become a hallmark of the painters mature offerings: "The lay of light on different surfaces such as the loaf of bread or the different fabrics is closely observed. The handling of the shape and color also has something of a distilled quality that we associate with the artist. Even the statesque figure of Martha, with her downcast eyes, seems like a precursor of the tranquil women who occupy Vermeer's later interiors, caught in suspended animation as they perform the simplest of domestic tasks."

The painting's size and topic suggests that it was created for a specific commission but its ownership is unclear prior to it surfacing in a private English collection as a Raphael. A cleaning in1901 revealed the Vermeer signature and its true authorship.

Graham-Dixon (Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found) sees the figure of Christ in this work as having been “lifted directly from The Death of St Joseph” by the Neapolitan Caravaggio follower Andrea Vaccaro. “The figures are nearly identical in physiognomy and pose, down to the exact position of their hands, the one difference being that Vaccaro’s Christ is standing and Vermeer's’s seated."

Andrea Vaccaro, The Death of St. Joseph, c. 1650 

Christ, according to Graham-Dixon, "addresses the stooping Martha in the manner of a mild and forbearing schoolmaster correcting a pupil who has made an innocent mistake." Further, by showing Martha with "lowered eyes and a solemn expression," the suggestion is that she understands the message that Jesus is conveying.

The NGS only suggests that this painting was made as a private commission but Graham-Dixon goes a little further by asserting that the buyer had to be someone who disagreed emphatically with the Calvinist position that faith alone is sufficient for the attainment of salvation. Martha is the meek and humble bearer of a gift, a loaf of bread, which immediately identifies her with the first of the seven Christian Acts of Mercy, feeding the hungry.

Graham-Dixon sees the painting as "turned more towards a female gaze" and, given its size, it may have been an altarpiece in a private, home-based chapel.