My grandfather, Charles Hugh Stevenson, and his co-writer, George Frederick Kunz, wrote The Book of the Pearl, published in 1908. I have often looked in wonder at the variety of natural pearls displayed in their book.
Yes, child of babe, there are pearls that large and larger and they have been in existence for centuries. The variety and size of pearls is nothing short of amazing.
6
only time will tell if these new machines damage the painting or not ,somethings are better off left unknown
5
Art critics join reductive science in an effort to "explain" a painting--how droll. This is not unlike neurologists crowing they have mapped the brain and found the area where religion is cabled and hardwired. What a monumental waste of time and money. Existentialists like Martin Buber, for example, knew at some point that pulling a tree apart into its chemical composition and sorting it out piece by reductive piece was to risk missing The Tree. You must stand before it and experience the tree not as an "it" but as a "thou" that addresses you by its fountain of light. Likewise, what could be less meaningful than reducing Vermeer's radiant painting into layers of x-rayed pigment? At some radiantly human moment, one must encounter and be encountered by the visage that appears there.
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The greatest mystery surrounding Vermeer is why only thirty some-odd paintings have survived. In a lifetime of 43 years he probably painted more than that, plus sketches, drawings, etchings, etc.
My theory is that his early work was destroyed by the Delft Armory Explosion in 1654, which killed thousands—including Dutch painter Carel Fabritius. In 1654, Vermeer was 22 living in Delft. The explosion had an estimated force of 20-30 tons of TNT.
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Whitman’s “When I Heard The Learn’d Astronomer” comes to mind.
7
Hanging across the room in the Mauritshuis is Vermeer's "A View of Delft." Proust, not an indifferent critic of art, declared the painting of Delft the greatest painting he had ever seen or hoped to see. It is amazing to see "A View of Delft" and "The Girl with a Pearl Earring" in a relatively small room in the Mauritshuis, a viewing not to be forgotten.
14
The yellow wall....
3
I am surprised that no one has mentioned the best selling novel by Tracey Chevalier based on her fascination with the painting, then extensive research she conducted. She crafted a beautiful story around the woman depicted in the painting, fiction of course, but fascinating, none the less.
I recommend the novel, on which the movie with Scarlet Johansson is based
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_with_a_Pearl_Earring_(novel)
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Watch Jean Cocteau's black and white film of "Beauty and the Beast". He was inspired by Vemeer. All the costumes and set designs are from the period of the painting. Cocteau even had Belle wearing a turban.
It is one of the beautiful films in the world and a personal favorite.
A beautiful film inspired by a beautiful painting. One artist inspiring another.
7
Years ago I saw the movie Girl with a Pearl Earring, based on the novel of the same name that created a persona for the eponymous subject of Vermeer's lovely painting. At one point the Vermeer character, who is teaching his housemaid/subject about light and color and seeing beyond surface impressions, asks, "What color is the sky?" and she responds reflexively, "Blue." He asks again, more slowly, more gently, "What color is the sky?" She looks again, and before she says another word, you see the small surprise in her eyes, the joy of looking harder--and seeing more.
I wish the researchers the joy of looking harder and finding something they'd never thought about in the layers of Vermeer's paint. I know I will never see the sky the same, and all I saw was the movie.
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"Girl with a Pearl Earring" is without a doubt my favorite painting. I viewed it in the Mauritshuis two summers ago and was enthralled - literally breathless. I could hardly wait to see it. There are no words to describe its beauty and mystery. I hope the researchers do not destroy that which makes "Girl" so wondrous.
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Will the camera let us see this online or will there be a documentary made? I'd like toes the glass box set up in the beautiful room with the experts working in it and on the painting.
4
This painting traveled to New York a couple years ago when this museum was doing some renovations. It was amazing to get to stand in a very crowded room at the Frick and see this painting in real life.
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If George Smiley of Bywater Street is interested in “Girl,” could Karla be far behind? Take care to protect this precious masterpiece.
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I viewed "Girl" when it was on exhibition in San Francisco. I have seen prints and photos of it many times. I have always wondered why it is named "Girl With a Pearl Earring." I have never seen a pearl that large and that shape - were pearls once so big? Have I missed something - are there pearls like that now? Is it just a word inserted into the title cause it sounded good? Did someone err? Did Vermeer call it that or did someone name it later?
After reading the book of course that became my reference - and it is hard for me not to imagine "that girl" as the girl. I am curious to find out what they learn about the origins.
5
It probably is not a pearl earring, but a glass earring with a pearlized coating. It may also not be a "girl." Art historians gave titles to paintings and many became pictures of "girls" during the time period when all females were referred to as girls, whatever their age.
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The past keeps changing, and as I get older the disconnection between the past as viewed through the eyes of someone in 1980 versus in 2018 becomes extreme. I recall clearly in 1980 that every Vermeer was a considered major focal point of every museum lucky enough to own one of the still-existing paintings by this unique painter. It strains credibility to assert Girl With a Pearl Earring was not a major attraction until 1995.
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John Updike has a lyric sentence about it in a 1982 story in The New Yorker: "In silence they turn at the head of the stairs, carrying a basket of laundry, and their face is that of Vermeer's girl with the pearl earring, of Ingres's odalisque, of all the women who look at us over their shoulders in endless thoughtful farewell." (NYer, 12/27/82, p. 37)
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Many times artists plan a painting and change it midway to something else or leave it unfinished. A few years ago there was an exhibit at The Met Breuer that spoke to this issue it was marvelously done.
I think that to keep the public engaged and to harness interest in art is wonderful and if creating the air of mystery about a painting starts a dialogue then so be it.
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That's how "Dressing the Dead Girl" became "Dressing the Bride."
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Interesting.... but would have liked a bit more details on what exactly they are looking for or hoping to find? Perhaps it is just more of an exercise in using this equipment and new techniques, and a bit of a publicity stunt using such a famous painting. After reading I am not sure exactly what the benefit of scanning this painting is and what they are hoping to extract from the "terabytes" of data.
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Perhaps the curiosity you're exhibiting is the point, beyond the research exercise per se...
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Exactly. Not much information here.
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Nova ran a piece showing how the effects of this painting were likely achieved. Well worth a watch.
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I cant find the Nova study. Are you sure it was Nova?
The universal adulation of all painters, even Vermeer, should always come with a certain scepticism. Artists and their paintings continually rise and fall in the market of public opinion and the financial markets. Vermeer was not included in the list of great Dutch artists until the rise of photography in the 19th century. But the understanding of his greatness is also variable: how could experts certify the muddles of van Meegeren as genuine Vermeers? But the fickleness of public taste is especially noticeable if you look at recent history: Bernard Buffet was once as great as Basquiat now but
relegated to great junk pile of history.
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Verneer only gets more likable as time passes. The frank gazes of his women subjects are entrancing and feel very modern. He's on my short list of male artists who actually seem to "get" women, alongside Cassevetes and Fassbinder.
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Who knows what will be found? But it reminds me of Frederick Barbarossa’s experiments about the human soul, including weighing a man alive, killing him, then weighing him again to see what the soul weighs. Just don’t damage the painting!
13
You would think, in an article about a painting, that you would include a photo of the painting. While I am familiar with the painting discussed, many may not be. No wonder people accuse the NYT of being elitist.
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Maybe those who don't know the painting will google it and will be guided to articles and other discussions of the painting and the artist and the era. See how that works?
4
Photos one, three and four show pictures of this painting.
3
Have we really become this disinterested in whats on the surface?
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Why must it be either or? Can't we love the painting and want to know what lies beneath, how the artist worked, and what techniques and materials he used?
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After reading the article i still don't know what kind of "secrets" they're attempting to discover.
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The depiction of light as it reflects off of surfaces is very realistic, almost like a modern photo.
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Given that Amsterdam was the center for optics and lens grinding, the belief is that Vermeer did use some kind of lens to achieve his results. Watch the movie Tim's Vermeer. Its about a guy painting a Vermeer using a lens. The guy can't paint or draw, but what what he produces is amazing. Very, very interesting film.
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Perhaps they are hoping to find the unexpected. This is not the Andrea Doria after all.
1
“How did the ‘Girl With a Pearl Earring’ come to life? What steps did Vermeer take to make this painting?”
These are some of the fundamental questions we still have about Johannes Vermeer’s beloved 1665 painting of a young woman in a blue and yellow turban,..."
THESE are some of the bogus questions that will cost an enormous amount of money. Are museums fading so much we need phony work ? If they wanted to know if this was a fake, OK, but but bogus Q's about WHO isn't coming from e-ray tech.
Sounds more like Geraldo R and Al Copone's safe.
9
Cool. There was a special on Vermeer last night on PBS. Going to watch it tonight so this article is right on time.
10
while they're on a fishing expedition for something why don't they also get into Vermeers View of Delft which also belongs to the museum. I think its not an accurate rendering of the location and perhaps there might be some sort of perspectival underdrawing or some changes... Not that we yet think of Vermeer making an underdrawing...
2
That 1995 exhibition in Washington DC was only open briefly because of a Government shutdown. I would have crawled to the gallery from my hose on Capitol Hill but my gardener offered to accompany me to keep me upright on all that snow and ice. The 21 Vermeers were intoxicating but the transformation of this middle aged man who had never been in a museum was something to behold.
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My girlfriend and I stood in a line that stretched all the way around the building in brutal cold to see those paintings. As I recall, The Gallery was the only museum that remained open, so the crowd was much bigger than it would have been otherwise. It was worth the long, cold wait.
6
Old masterpieces are fun for the whole art family -- curators, collectors, conservators, writers, et.al. ! Vermeer has been among my favorite painters for many years for many reasons. (Scarcity of works, scarcity of hard knowledge about Vermeer, fame of Han van Meegeren's long-term Vermeer fraud,...) Any deeper analysis of any of his paintings is going to attract fans like catnip, but especially the under-famous "Girl With a Pearl Earring".
New Yorkers are so lucky to have so many Vermeers readily available for viewing. I think there are four at The Met and two others just down the street at The Frick Collection. The Frick's are so casually displayed I was stunned to see them for the first time last summer.
6
Article might less presumptuously be titled "Uncovering Secrets of the 'Girls With a Pearl Earring'," since even such fascinating research will leave much else to consider. Physical evidence likely to take us only so far...
1
Well, if nothing else, at least the staged research event in a glass box got its wanted media attention, more important even than visitors to the museum to watch the research as spectacle show.. Lot's of papers have covered it. Only because it is the celebrity "girl with a pearl" that is being denuded and probed. Otherwise, it would not be any news. Visitors will be deprived for some time from meeting the girl's eye and viewing her portrait in the museum's wall, though. A new reality show now inside the museums? A new gimmick to attract visitors?
4
Charles Zigmund.I am a big fan of Rembrandt for years.i think he was a spender and I am not sure if he sold his drawings and prints.He died of old age but was only 63years old.However I think he was quite popular till the end.Also I am not sure he sold any of his 30 or so self portraits.
Non-artistic comment .... I will forever associate this painting with Newt Gingrich's government shutdown in 1995. I travelled by train, all the way from Atlantic City to Washington's National Gallery, specifically to view this one painting, knowing that there was a chance I might not be able to see it at all due to the shutdown and the resulting lack of supervisory staff at the Gallery. I joined the line, which backed up all the way around the block, with warnings that those of us in our section would probably not get in. I persevered and was lucky enough to gain admittance to the Gallery before it was closed. Needless to say it was a worthwhile gamble and wait. It is an unforgettable painting.
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Vermeer used the most modern techniques of his time (the camera obscure, pinholes and top quality ingredients to his paints) to create his sense of realism. He also used clever brush stroke techniques to bring detail to the forefront and blur areas to create a dreamlike depth perception. He did paint over his canvases to 'remove' elements/objects from view and simplify/strengthen compositions. He is the painter of light and space and the wonders of seeing and tranquil discovery. To study the painting of the "girl", i.e., the layers will make us better understand Vermeer's sense of perfecting a phenomenal image/painting. To "look him over the shoulder" as it were I think is worth this creative research. And perhaps there'll be clues as to who set model for this divine girl . . .
30
I love Vermeer's paintings, particularly for their subject matter, which was controversial and evocative at the time.
Those interested in this subject should watch inventor Tim Jennison's 2014 documentary, "Tim's Vermeer," which explores at length his belief that the photo-realism of Vermeer's work was the result of early usage of a precursor to the camera (called a camera obscura). Jennison postulates that Vermeer project ed the image onto a canvas via a pinhole and mirrors, so that all he had to do was match the colors showing up on the canvas in front of him (upside down). Interestingly, this technique would allow for the peculiar lack of brushwork that would be expected in paintings of the time.
Jennison is no artist. Despite this fact, he travels to Holland to recreate the scene of a Vermeer painting, finds the pigment components available at the time, and uses a camera obscura to produce a very high quality replica of a Vermeer painting.
20
E Pluribus, While having a couple of new fangled innovations like the pin hole camera and the camera obscure, might have given Vermeer a little speed in getting his image of "the Girl" in place and proportion, I have to say, the most difficult aspect of painting is the handling of the color, mixing , adding the proper amount of oil and solvent and having an extremely well trained eye for color. Drawing is a difficult skill to learn and master, but in my opinion color and it's application to the canvas is far more difficult to master. And as far as I know, there are no aids available for that other than , " Practice, Practice, and more Practice". No shortcuts here. Don't underestimate Vermeer's artistry with color, that's the real deal!
5
Readers may be interested to know that Vermeer was an unsuccessful artist in his time and one painting was used to pay his butcher bill. A similar fate befell Rembrandt in his later years, his sales were rare and he went bankrupt. These two artists, the glories of Dutch art, were judged harshly by the Dutch of their own time.
22
Yes, quite so. Changing tastes over decades and centuries probably explain why "unsuccessful" artists come to defy the label. Vivaldi's music was popular in his time but the playing of it declined after his death. Come the mid 20th century Vivaldi's talent came once again to the fore.
5
as an unrecognized artistic geniuis, i take heart. join me in hope, all ye who are as this.
2
Vivaldi's talent came once again to the fore...."
You mean the guy who wrote" ONE concerto a thousand times" ?
LOL just kidding Il Prete Rosso is still under appreciated. Like a lot of things in life, paintings only become "valuable" and worth while when one owns one. what with so many fakes peddled by the"great art dealers" of the last century, I guess using tech to find out if something is genuine is money well spent, but this article does not even propose that basic question.
2
I question the assertion that "Girl" was not considered a major work until the 1995 exhibition of Vermeer's work at the National Gallery of Art here in Washington. I visited the Mauritshuis in the 70s, and it was considered a star attraction even then.
17
Given how few Vermeers there are, any Vermeer is a notable attraction to people who are interested in art, and any Vermeer would be a highlight of any museum that owned it. If we're talking about "major work" in the broader popular sense, however, I'd agree that "Girl With a Pearl Earring" has achieved "cultural literacy" status only in the past 20 years. I don't think we saw it on T-shirts and coffee mugs in the 70s, and it wouldn't have been as familiar then to the average person on the street. Now, however, it's practically as ubiquitous as "Starry Night," "American Gothic," and "Venus de Milo" (though not as oversaturated as those two tiresome Raphael cherubs).
7
Vermeer was not a household image or word until rather recently, that is true. When studying art history in the 1960s, however, about 35 Vermeers were recognized as genuine, including "Girl with a Pearl...". I believe most of the forged Vermeers had already been discovered, even without the most sophisticated technology we now have.
2
Why are we trying so hard to remove the mystique of this painting? It's beauty and mystery continue to captivate us. Sometimes able and not knowing is better than able and knowing.
14
"Sometimes able and not knowing is better than able and knowing."-Randal Bottoms
Isn't that the basic attraction of teenaged girls, based on recent accusations in Alabama? The "mystique" may have very little to do with painting, more with just the impulses regarding the target's "not knowing" triggers.
1
Education over ignorance.
6
Ignorance being bliss, ones assumes you imply. Not so much true for those with a need to understand, the very essence of being human (as well sell it to ourselves)...
2
Vermeer's paintings reveal mostly his fascinating interest in the changing world of 1492 to 1665. The Girl and other Vermeer works are of poetic historic interest as much or more as the are about technology.
14
There is no point in discovering the secrets of the painting (whether it be material, technique, etc), because no one is seeking to reproduce that sort of art or that sort of production.
A couple of analogies will illustrate my point:
1) people ARE interested in discovering the secrets of the Stradivarius violin because musicians and audience alike want instruments that sound as good as Strads and violin makers want to know the technique and material make comparable violins.
2) people are NOT interested in discovering the secrets of how Mozart came up with his compositions because no one would listen to or play a composition written today that sounded as though Mozart had composed it.
Thus a hundred more new paintings just like Vermeers are not what the art world is looking for.
2
I would think that the examination of the painting, technique and materials would be of interest to other artists (can I make my blue paint last for over 100 years?), and art historians ( a finding may explain something about another work of art) to name two reasons other than reproduction of 100 "Girl with a Pearl" paintings. Replication isn't the sole reason for research.
28
This shows a lack of understanding of research. It doesn't have to have practical applications. I think lots of people would be interested in how Mozart came up with his compositions because people are interested in how the brain works. People are interested in how the pyramids were built - but it's not because they want to build pyramids.
55
So is there "no point" in exploring how the pyramids were built, or the ancient structures attuned to solar and lunar events, because we don't plan to recreate those things? I think it is you who are completely missing the point.
6
For a fantastic and highly entertaining hypothesis on how Vermeer made his pictures, see the documentary Tim’s Vermeer. It is quite compelling.
27
Perhaps I'm being a tad too skeptical, but without any explicit research goal clearly mapped out, the in-gallery activities sound more like (pseudo-)science as performance art that may just possibly reveal "terabytes of data" about the already known fact that paintings are painted by painters who often paint in glaze layers of paint.
10
Basic research is often undertaken with out such a specific goal. In this case, learning as much as possible about Vermeer’s process and the painting’s development is a sufficient “goal”. We don’t know what we don’t know. Who knows what answers may be found to questions we don’t know enough to ask.
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