Apropos of discussions about “hijab” as modest dressing including head covering for women, Vermeer’s famous painting “Officer and Laughing Girl,”

now on exhibit at the Frick bears an interesting description: “A gentle radiance illuminates an officer and a modestly dressed young woman engaged in the pleasantries of courtship.”

Is it the headcovering that makes the woman in the 1657 Dutch painting modestly dressed?

[images via]