Girl with a Pearl Earring (Great Art)

GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING (Johannes Vermeer, Dutch, 1665)

This painting has not always been known by this title; through the centuries it has been called "Portrait in Antique Costume, uncommonly artistic," "Girl with a Turban," and "Head of a Young Girl." The closest name to the current one was simply "The Pearl," which may have alluded as much to the subject's complexion as to her jewelry. (One modern scholar has proposed that the earring is not a pearl at all, but a piece of polished tin!) To some, the allure of the painting is akin to that of the Mona Lisa, with the woman's disarmingly confident gaze at the viewer. The painting has inspired numerous poems and stories; one historical novel based on it became a 2003 film starring Scarlett Johansson as the "girl," imagined to be a servant of Vermeer who models for the painting.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)