[00:00.00]Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in an art history class.
[00:06.86]Professor: My topic today is a small oil painting by the 17th century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring. [00:17.09]It’s signed by the artist but not dated. [00:20.54]It’s probably the most reproduced of all of Vermeer’s work. [00:25.06]At first, this looks like a portrait, but technically, it’s not. [00:30.24]It belongs to a category known in Dutch as a tronie. [00:34.66]Tronie is a category that’s familiar to scholars from many examples by other 17th century Dutch masters. [00:43.54]The subjects of tronies were not intended to be recognized as individuals, but as interesting characters or archetypes such as the dashing soldier or the wise teacher. [00:57.41]Tronies were usually depicted with just a head and shoulders, whereas portraits were normally half length or full length. [01:06.05]And they were much more formally composed. [01:09.60]As you can see the girl is wearing a yellow garment and a blue and yellow turban. [01:15.84]Her earring, a tear-dropped piece of glass, has been varnished to look like a gigantic pearl and she’s turning to look over her left shoulder.
[01:26.02]John: It’s almost like a snapshot. [01:28.90]I mean, not a formal photo.
[01:31.82]Professor: Interesting observation, John. [01:34.27]It does seem spontaneous. [01:36.55]But there’s actually painstaking class on display here. [01:40.61]Notice the way her head is lit with a highlight on the front of the turban and a reflective light that bounces up from her collar, softly lighting the jaw from below. [01:51.91]This lighting scheme echoed in the earring. [01:55.60]Her lips are slightly opened, making it possible for the artist to create the most remarkable detail of all. [02:02.80]On the left, a narrow stream of light passes between her lips and strikes the opposite corner of her mouth as a little point of light and then stands out and spreads across her cheek. [02:15.91]This shows Vermeer’s powerful observation of optical effects and his amazing ability to translate that observation into paint. [02:25.85]Another point I want to make is something about the girl is elusive somehow. [02:31.39]Now, why is that?
[02:33.46]John: Well, maybe because there aren’t any walls or furniture telling us where the girl is, or her social status, or when she lived.
[02:44.74]Professor: Exactly, no setting, no prompt, no specifics in her costume, not even a hairstyle, so she doesn’t belong to any particular time or place. [02:56.11]I think this elusive, this enigmatic quality is responsible, in part, for the painting’s popularity.
[03:04.18]Female: It reminds of what people say about the Mona Lisa.
[03:07.73]Professor: Right, the great Italian Renaissance painter Leonardo da Vinci also created a sense of mystery with Mona Lisa’s hard to interpret smile. [03:18.53]You know, a few years ago, a computer analysis was done on Mona Lisa’s face using software that evaluates facial expression and I believe it found that she was happy, disgusted, fearful, and angry all at once.
[03:35.33]Anyway, getting back to our topic. [03:37.70]It’s no coincidence that Girl with a Pearl Earring has captured the imagination of contemporary writers. [03:45.24]Have any of you read the bestselling novel called Girl with a Pearl Earring? [03:50.18]Or seen the movie adaptation of it? [03:52.80]There’s also an opera, partially based on this painting. [03:56.59]Well, all of these contemporary works try to supply missing facts to complete our understanding of this image, but despite the painting’s elusive quality, the girl’s features are quite specific. [04:11.55]So it’s unlikely that she’s imaginary.
[04:14.16]Female: I heard she was Vermeer’s oldest child.
[04:17.81]Professor: Yes, an interesting theory. [04:20.21]Vermeer and his wife had many children. [04:23.28]The eldest, Maria, was probably born in 1654 and Girl with a Pearl Earring bears a striking resemblance to a girl in another Vermeer painting, also undated. [04:36.96]The two leading experts on Vermeer’s art close to agreeing that Pearl Earring was painted when Maria would’ve been between 10 and 12. [04:46.46]The same scholars believe the other painting was made a year later but keep in mind that these dates are based solely on the expert’s opinion of where these paintings fit into the development of Vermeer’s style. [04:59.95]And mind you, the style of these paintings could fit just as well into when Maria was a couple of years older.
[05:08.06]But how does any of this prove that the girl pictured was Maria? [05:12.96]After Vermeer’s death, his wife had to sell his artwork to pay bills. [05:17.86]But she tried to keep the other paintings I just referred to in her family. [05:22.46]I suspect it was because it included an image of one of her children.
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