Baroque Art Analysis of Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring

 Baroque Art Analysis of Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring

 

 Painted between 1665 and 1666 Girl With a Pearl Earring is a 17 ½ x 15 3/8 in. oil painting on canvas by Johannes Vermeer. Girl With a Pearl Earring was made in the city of Delft in the Netherlands where Vermeer spent his entire life. It is unknown who this painting was originally created for but it soon made its way into the collection of his patron Maria de Knuijt (What’s Special). Vermeer most commonly was a genre painter, this painting however is classified as a tronie portrait (Zalazko, Girl). Tronies are a distinctly Dutch subcategory of portraiture that featured idealized faces or exaggerated expressions which means that this portrait is of no specific individual although a person may have posed for it (Girl). It is not fully accepted, but, if an individual did pose for this tronie, it would have most likely been Vermeer’s daughter Maria (Binstock). Maria was an excellent painter in her own right who often assisted her father and it is even estimated that around 1/5 of her father's 36 surviving works were created by her (Binstock). With such beautiful clothing, and an alluring woman represented in this painting it is no wonder that Girl With a Pearl Earring is often compared to a called “the Mona Lisa of the North (Martinique). 

Influences of the Northern Renaissance can be seen in several aspects of this early Baroque painting. Interestingly enough, many of these elements can also be linked to the guidelines set forth for artists by the Council of Trent. One of these overlapping features includes realistically rendered clothing and faces, whose techniques for application became perfected during the Renaissance, and were set as a standard by the Council of Trent. Another shared aspect is both the Council of Trent’s and Renaissance artists' desire to create clear images that expressed emotion of some kind. Like the Mona Lisa, Girl With a Pearl Earring features a rather emotionless face with only the slightest hint of expression. 

Unlike the Mona Lisa however which holds an underlying mischievous smile, Girl With a Pearl Earring gives off a sense of calm longing for someone or something just out of reach but the girl realized she cannot have. The most distinctly Baroque element of Girl With a Pearl Earring is the use of tenebrism. While the Mona Lisa exhibits a highly detailed background, Girl With a Pearl Earring showcases a pure black background.  The girl's pale skin paired with the nearly white-yellow and soft blue of her turban and clothing create a gorgeous contrast against the extremely dark background typical of tenebrism. It seems to me, that the reason tenebrism gained such popularity in pictures and portraits such as this during the time might have been in part due to the rising merchant classes and their desire to own art. The use of tenebrism as seen in the Girl With a Pearl Earring to forgo painting a detailed background would have likely decreased the cost of portraits and thus made them more affordable to the rising lower classes.

Near the time Girl With a Pearl Earring was created, the Dutch gained independence from Spanish Catholic rule, which allowed these middle merchant classes to expand their economic reach specifically in the art world (Telayna). With the middle classes’ wealth growing, they sought to boost their status by buying art. Having been relieved from the constraints set by the church, artists were now able to depict secular images such as this tronie (Telayna). Because portraits were such an obvious display of wealth, middle-class individuals’ newfound prosperity brought an all-time demand for portraits (Telayna). Vermeer took advantage of this craze much of his work consisting of portraits such as this. If not for this newfound demand for art, Vermeer would not have created nearly as many paintings, certainly not this tronie whose original buyer is unknown. Less work would have also meant that Vermeer’s fame, although modest for his time, might not have had nearly the reach that it did. With the freedom to explore new subjects and techniques, artists of the Dutch Golden Age thrived. With portraits becoming so desirable due to the large influx of new clients, artists were able to experiment a great deal more creating some of the best and most recognizable pieces of the period. 

I personally find Girl With a Pearl Earring appealing for several reasons first and foremost being the color scheme. Technically speaking, the dominant colors of the image, blue and yellow, are compliments and thus create a color scheme that is very pleasing to the eye. I am however biased in my opinion as yellow and blue are two of my favorite colors and their pastel hues featured in this work only further my appreciation. Additionally, I like that there aren’t any details in the background that forces you to focus solely on the girl. While her face doesn’t particularly stand out from others, it is the girl’s outfit that is truly unique and makes this painting so recognizable.  Not only is her head covered by a turban not commonly depicted in European art of the time, but the dress she is wearing in my opinion resembles a Japanese Kimono. Finally, the single abnormally large pearl that hangs from her ear exudes an elegant and timeless beauty that can be viewed and appreciated across the centuries.  

 

Work Cited

Binstock, Benjamin. “Who Was the Girl With the Pearl Earring,” CULTUREBOX, October 30, 2013. https://slate.com/culture/2013/10/vermeers-daughter-was-the-girl-with-the-pearl-earring-and-painted-later-vermeer-works.html#:~:text=But%20the%20evidence%20suggests%20Vermeer's,currently%20assigned%20to%20her%20father. Accessed 1, March 2023.

“Girl With A Pearl Earring,” The Frick Collection, https://www.frick.org/exhibitions/mauritshuis/670. Accessed 1, March 2023.

Martinique, Elena. “More Secrets of Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring Revealed in New Research,” WIDEWALLS, May 12,2020, https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/vermeer-girl-with-a-pearl-earring. Accessed 1, March 2023.

Telayna.  “The Rise of the Merchant Class, and its Influence for Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring,” tgordonart, October 5, 2014. https://tgordonart.wordpress.com/2014/10/05/the-rise-of-the-merchant-class-and-its-influence-for-vermeers-girl-with-a-pearl-earring/.  Accessed 2, March 2023.

“What’s so Special About Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring,” Google Arts and Culture, https://artsandculture.google.com/story/what%E2%80%99s-so-special-about-vermeer%E2%80%99s-girl-with-a-pearl-earring/WQWBl7zQJhT3KQ?hl=en.

Zalazko, Alicja. “Girl with a Pearl Earring painting by Vermeer,” Encyclopedia Britannica, February 8, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Girl-with-a-Pearl-Earring-by-Vermeer. Accessed 1, March 2023.