Pouring milk

**The only moving element.** The thin white stream of milk is the painting’s temporal center: everything else is still, but the milk falls continuously from jug to bowl. The Rijksmuseum singles out this contrast between stillness and motion, and art historians often treat the gesture as a point where domestic action becomes almost ceremonial. The stream also demonstrates Vermeer’s control of attention: a tiny bright line can organize the whole canvas. **References:** Rijksmuseum collection record SK-A-2344; Rijksmuseum story on the streaming milk; Metropolitan Museum of Art essay.

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