Dutch researchers coax secrets from Girl with a Pearl Earring

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A major research project into one of the world’s most popular and captivating paintings has revealed new secrets but the most tantalising question remains: just who was the girl with a pearl earring?

Researchers at the Mauritshuis gallery in The Hague on Tuesday revealed the results of extensive investigations into its star painting, Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, thought to date from about 1665.

Vandivere said the two biggest discoveries were finding the girl’s eyelashes and evidence that Vermeer painted a green curtain, which has gradually faded, rather than an empty dark background.

Scholars have previously speculated that the girl’s lack of eyelashes might be because Vermeer was painting an idealised or abstract face. A similar argument was made for the formless expanse behind her. Both discoveries “put the girl in a defined space and bring us a lot closer to her”, said Vandivere. They suggest Vermeer was faithfully observing and painting a real person in a real space.

Researchers also discovered changes Vermeer made, including shifting the position of the ear, the top of the headscarf and the back of the neck.

The pearl itself is an illusion in that “it has no contour and also no hook to hang it from the girl’s ear”, she said.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/apr/28/dutch-researchers-coax-secrets-from-girl-with-a-pearl-earring

[LilMonst3r 5,687]

Imagine modeling for hours and having your image become an iconic work of art that billions of people will come to know and want to know who you were. Uhg I love Art and History so much.

[InTraumatica 5,786]

Wasn’t it Scarlett Johnson? 

[surejan 7,296]

@Dutch great job sis 

[Dutch 95,704]

3 hours ago, surejan said:

@Dutch great job sis 

I did what? THAT.