#GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING SKIN#

Regarded as Vermeer's masterpiece, this canvas is often referred to as the Mona Lisa of the North or the Dutch Mona Lisa. The research also identified and accurately mapped VermeerвЂ™s colour palette for the first time: red (vermilion, and red lake made from cochineal), various shades of yellow and brown (earth pigments, lead-tin yellow and yellow lake), blue (ultramarine and indigo), shades of black (charcoal and bone black) and white (two kinds of lead white).Girl with a Pearl Earring was originally titled Girl with a Turban and it wasn't until the second half of the twentieth century that the name was changed. The new research also revealed that Vermeer made changes to the composition during the painting process-'the position of the ear, the top of the headscarf and the back of the neck were shifted,' according to the researchers. Also, macro-X-ray fluorescence scanning and microscopic examination also revealed that Vermeer painted tiny hairs around both eyes (to the naked eye, the Girl has always appeared to have had no eyelashes). Imaging techniques visualised diagonal lines and colour variations that suggest folded fabric in the upper right-hand corner of the painting,' says the researchers. 'One of the most surprising findings was that the background is not simply an empty dark space Vermeer painted the Girl in front of a green curtain. UPDATE: The discoveries have since been detailed online. Perhaps Vermeer exaggerated it a little to make it more of a focal point of the paintingвЂ¦ At high magnification, you can see that Vermeer painted the pearl with only a few brushstrokes of lead white.вЂќ Did you know that it might not be a pearl at all? Costume and jewellery specialists believe that itвЂ™s too big to be real. вЂњOur eye is drawn to the pearl, not only because it is the paintingвЂ™s namesake, but because Vermeer placed it at the centre of the composition. In another section, she describes zooming into the surface of the painting through a microscope lens.

#GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING SKIN#

To achieve the subtle blending from light to shadow, for example the translucent skin on the edge of her cheek, he used a soft dry brush to blend the wet paint after he applied it,вЂќ writes Vandivere. вЂњThe slow drying speed of oil paint allowed Vermeer to blend colours together in the Girl with a Pearl Earring, and to manipulate his paint after he applied it.

In a section called вЂњWatching Paint DryвЂќ, she writes: вЂњHow did Vermeer make the paint that was used in the Girl with a Pearl Earring? Like most 17th-century Dutch artists, he used oil paint.вЂќ The binding medium used to paint the work is linseed oil, made from the seeds of the flax plant, she says The blog contains a wealth of detail on the canvas, pigments, oil and other materials Vermeer used to create the work. Vandivere outlines in a blog the purpose and processes of the initiative, saying: вЂњWhich materials did Vermeer use, and where did they come from? Which techniques did Vermeer use to create subtle optical effects? What did the painting look like originally, and how has it changed?вЂќ The research involved non-invasive imaging and scanning techniques, digital microscopy and paint sample analysis. The painting was last examined in 1994 during a conservation treatment. The research project, known as The Girl in the Spotlight, was led by the Mauritshuis's paintings conservator Abbie Vandivere who worked with specialists at several other institutions including the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Delft University of Technology.

On 28 April, the Mauritshuis in The Hague will unveil a web page detailing the new findings, throwing new light on VermeerвЂ™s brushwork, the use of pigments, and how he вЂњbuilt upвЂќ the painting in different layers.ДЄn international team of conservators, scientists and researchers spent two weeks in early 2018 studying the painting in a specially constructed glass studio at the Mauritshuis, enabling members of the public to follow the forensic analysis. The results of an extensive technical examination of Johannes VermeerвЂ™s Girl with a Pearl Earring (around 1665) will be announced early next week, giving new insights into how the Dutch artist painted one of the most famous works in the world.

Girl with a pearl earring