Those who love painting, headed for the Detroit Institute of Arts. Those who don’t love painting, should have gone with someone who does. They’d have discovered how a work of art can lead a person into a new world of being.

You’re practically guaranteed never to be the same after experiencing one of the most special paintings ever made, ”Woman Holding a Balance” created in 1664 by Johannes Vermeer, one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age.

The DIA exhibition, on display through Sept. 2, 2o12, represented an extraordinary opportunity to enjoy one of Johannes Vermeer’s 35 known works. This particular masterpiece fuses the arts, sciences, philosophy, narrative and symbolism in ways that a marvel to behold.

The DIA reports a Vermeer has not been on view in Detroit for decades. Woman Holding a Balance is an intimate depiction of domesticity that reveals Vermeer’s masterful use of light, proportion, and symbolism.

If you don’t go Wednesday, make plans before Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012. On loan from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the work will be on view for four weeks only at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Image: Woman Holding a Balance, Johannes Vermeer, 1664, oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Widener Collection 1942.

Click here for an outstanding online resource on the Woman Holding a Balance, courtesy of the National Gallery of Art. For more information about the Detroit exhibition, click here to visit the DIA online.