十七世紀的荷蘭畫家維梅爾(Johannes Vermeer, 1632-1675)以家鄉台夫特(Delft)為據點，與同時期畫家史提(Jan Steen, 1625-1679)和德霍赫(Pieter de Hooch, 1629-1684)等人共同成就了「台夫特畫派」。他們的作品常以室內的生活情景為主，佐以傢俱擺設進行創作，此類構圖主題爾後被歸為「風俗畫」(Genre Painting)。在維梅爾僅存約36幅傳世作品中，有11幅將樂器入畫，使其畫布不只呈現單一的視覺藝術，更增添了音樂想像與聲響效果。這些樂器的出現並非天外飛來一筆，而是畫家刻意的安排。然而，畫家除了展現樂器表象的特質之外，是否也伴隨著值得深究的意涵呢？依據潘諾夫斯基(Erwin Panofsky, 1892-1968)確立的「圖像學」(Iconography)理論與音樂學者希巴斯(Tilman Seebass, b. 1939)的論點，這些畫作的題材不只反映著大時代的社會環境，也呈現那些幾乎被遺忘的早期樂器，更提供了音樂記譜無法記錄的演奏姿勢、社會價值及樂器可能的象徵喻意。本文將循圖像學的學理基礎，融合音樂學界的論點，以不同的面向探究維梅爾的音樂畫作。

The 17th-century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) and his contemporaries, Jan Steen (1625-1679), Pieter de Hooch (1629-1684) and others, achieved the Delft School basing on his hometown. They liked to depict indoor living scenes with furniture in their paintings. This type of painting is categorized as Genre Painting. There are about 36 surviving works in which 11 with musical instruments by Vermeer. These paintings add the musical image and sound effect to the visual arts. The appearance of these musical instruments is not meaningless; they are shown purposely by the painter. However, other than the outlook of instruments presented by the painter, is there any hidden message coming along with it? According to Erwin Panofsky’s iconography and Tilman Seebass’s concept, these paintings not only reflect the social soundings of the era, but also the almost forgotten early musical instruments. Furthermore, they provide the valuable information of performance gesture, social value, and symbolism beyond musical notation. This article will follow the theory of iconography and fusing the opinions of musicology to explore the possible notions of musical paintings by Johannes Vermeer.