Amsterdam’s “Rijksmuseum” opened the largest exhibition of works by Jan Vermeer in history. This exposition is this year’s main exhibition blockbuster: all 45 thousand tickets for it were bought in just two days.
As Vermeer is now in the general spotlight, his work has become the subject of countless discussions. One of them – quite scientific – is dedicated to the painting “Girl with a pearl earring”. Or rather, the earring itself.
Roelof claims that a pearl of this size would be “astronomically expensive”, far beyond the painter’s financial means. Also, pearls do not reflect light as shown in the painting. “In Vermeer’s works, we see artificial glass beads, which were sold mainly by Venetian glassblowers in that era,” says the curator of the exhibition.
There are other opinions. Vincent Eyck, a professor of astronomy in the Netherlands, believes that it is tin, but Martina Goselinka, director of the Mauritshuis Royal Gallery in The Hague, where this painting is currently kept, commented on the status of the earring as follows: “It is neither pearls nor glass, just paint.”
How did the legend of pearls come about? This is the result of cultural stratification. Vermeer himself did not name the painting in any way. Later it was called both “The Girl in the Turban” and “The Girl’s Face”. The current name was given to the painting by the “Mauritshuis” museum itself. It was strengthened in Tracy Chevalier’s novel “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” published in the late 1990s. Finally, in 2003, the film of the same name, starring Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson, was released, and the painting finally achieved cult status.
Will it change its name now? Unlikely. It’s a legend!
