Headscarf in Vermeer's 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' has 'blue pigment more valuable than gold', reveals research
The first thing that comes to mind when you hear 'the world's most famous portrait' is Leonardo da Vinci's paragon of the Italian Renaissance, the 'Mona Lisa.' For centuries since it was deemed a masterpiece on oil canvas, the identity of da Vinci's muse was shrouded in mystery. It was only 2005, that a breakthrough in what is possibly decades worth of research discovered that the 'Mona Lisa' was a portrait of an Italian noblewoman, Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine Merchant, Francesco del Giocondo.
Nearly 200 years after da Vinci created his masterpiece, a fellow European painter the etched the face of a mysterious woman on canvas circa 1665, per historical records. Unlike the 'Mona Lisa', however, this woman's identity remains anonymous and experts say that she might as well have been a figment of the artist, Johannes Vermeer's imagination. The portrait in question is that of 'The Girl with a Pearl Earring', which has been on display in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague since 1902. The painting is called a 'tronie', which is Dutch for a character of a type of person, which essentially means that while a young woman may have modeled for Vermeer, he didn't portray her in her likeness in the way that da Vinci did with the 'Mona Lisa'. Yet it has been likened to da Vinci's 1503 work and earned the nickname 'Mona Lisa of the North'.
On April 29, a team of researchers who had been examining Vermeer's painting at The Hague since 2018, revealed their findings from the in-depth investigation of 'The Girl with a Pearl Earring.' While they have made some new discoveries through the means of an array of modern imaging technology, the riddles surrounding the enigmatic subject of the painting haven't been explained.
“Who was the girl?” said Martine Gosselink, Director of the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague in an online presentation about the new discovery, on April 29. “Spoiler alert: No, sadly we didn’t find out who this young lady was and if she ever really existed. But we did get a little closer to her. This is not the endpoint of our research.”
The Dutch researchers were left gobsmacked when they made some unprecedented findings including delicate eyelashes on the girl's face and a green curtain behind her head, which had faded into a background over time. Furthermore, they uncovered details into how Vermeer painted the 'tronie', what pigments he used and the changes he made to the painting like altering the position of the ear, the top of the headscarf, and the back of the neck.
The research also offered significant new insight into the pigments he used in the painting. It traced the white lead to the Peak District in northern England, the ultramarine blue grounds of lapis lazuli found in modern-day Afghanistan, and the red to the Cochineal insect that lives on cacti in Mexico and South America. “It’s surprising how much high-quality ultramarine Vermeer used in the girl’s headscarf. This blue pigment was more valuable than gold in the 17th century," Abbie Vandivere the head of the research project titled 'The Girl in The Spotlight' told the Guardian.
The girl in the painting has often been the subject of academic debate, for a lack of hair on her visage prompting comparisons with the 'Mona Lisa' as well. However, microscopic scans have also revealed tiny fragments leftover from the strokes of Vermeer's paintbrush, embedded in the girl's skin.
"We were able to find out so much about Vermeer’s materials and techniques but we still don’t know exactly who the girl is. It is good that some mysteries remain and everyone can speculate about her. It allows people their own personal interpretation of the girl; everyone feels their own connection with the way she meets your eyes,"said Vandivere. “The fact that she is still a mystery keeps people coming back and keeps her exciting and fresh."
She also explained their findings on Vermeer's painting techniques, saying he worked in a systematic fashion starting from the background first and moving to the foreground. He began to compose the painting in myriad shades of brown and black before painting the girl’s face, jacket and collar. The blue headscarf and pearl earring were the final elements added to the canvas, save for the artist’s signature. Vermeer didn't have to globetrot in order to obtain his materials, and possibly brought them in Delft, his hometown, which Vandivere opines "also tell us about Dutch and world trade in the 17th century."
When the museum last investigated the painting, it found Vermeer hadn't painted a second highlight on the pearl. It was actually a flake of paint on the canvas. This time, they’ve made note of the way he rendered the earring, adding just a few dabs of pigment atop the background to create the illusion of the jewel. “It has no contour and also no hook to hang it from the girl’s ear,” said Vandivere.
'The Girl with the Pearl Earring' has gained far more exposure than the 'Mona Lisa' ever has. In 1999, American author Tracy Chevalier based her novel 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' off of the painting that she claimed she had been "smitten" with. It entailed that the girl was a maid in Vermeer's house and she persuaded him to let her secretly pose for him. The book was subsequently adapted into a movie starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth, in 2003.
The painting has appeared on the cover of many art books, and one can also own facsimiles of the painting on cushions, coaster, T-shirts, and other merchandise. In popular culture, one can also find the girl as a subject fo modern-day internet memes. British pseudonymous artist Banksy has also turned the girl into a graffiti on a wall in Bristol, swapping her pearl earring for a security alarm.