As we continue on in Art History Month here at The History Bluff, we focus in on a pregnancy test that was depicted by 17th-century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer.

Woman Holding a Balance

Vermeer’s Woman Holding a Balance is a study in early pregnancy testing that was practiced by a majority of women from the 15th- to 18th-centuries.  Superstition was relied upon to determine if a woman was pregnant and what gender the child would be.

Women who were believed to be pregnant would place a scale close to their stomach and watch the trays of the balance. If the tray on the left dipped lower than the right, it was a girl – vice versa and it was a boy. If the trays remained balanced, she was probably just fat.