Vermeer and the girl without a pearl earring
You‘ve probably seen images of Johannes Vermeer‘s famous painting "girl with a pearl earring". When you go to the website of Mauritshuis, the museum that now houses the artwork, you‘ll find a high resolution picture of it (link). I haven‘t seen the painting in real life yet, so I was very happy for this chance to zoom in. Of course I immediately navigated to the pearl earring. Without it, the whole painting would fall apart. It‘s the pearl earring that centers the image. It balances the girl‘s intent gaze, it‘s what makes this painting so special. So imagine my surprise when I zoomed in, and the pearl earring just ... disappeared.
Visible light photograph [René Gerritsen Art & Research Photography]
A 3D digital microphotograph shows the pearl at 140x magnification (1.1 μm/pixel) [Hirox Europe, Jyfel]
Can you believe it? Vermeer didn‘t actually paint a pearl earring. He only painted the reflection of light (in the place where it would be, if there were a pearl earring. Which there isn‘t). It‘s really just a bit of ochre and white on the right side, and a dab of white on the left, and voilá. How dare he! But seriously: This is the work of a true master, and we can learn something important from it. I think we can agree that Vermeer knew how to paint very well. And I think it‘s safe to say he probably knew how to paint a pearl earring in great detail. What makes this so masterful, is that he knew he didn‘t have to. He knew how human perception works. He anticipated that if we see only those reflections, our mind fills in the rest. How amazing is that?