Diálogos Transdisciplinares em Girl with a Pearl Earring: a Arte ...

forma não existisse de fato e que o artista ou representou uma pérola artificial ou
deliberadamente exagerou sua dimensão, nenhuma proeza para um pintor de uma
técnica notável.
As pérolas eram extremamente importantes no século XVII como um símbolo de
status.
In 1660 Samuel Pepys (an English diarist) paid 4 _ pounds for a pearl necklace,
and in 1666 he paid 80 pounds for another, which at the time amounted to about
45 and 800 guilders respectively (Lidtke: 2001, 166).
As mulheres retratadas por Vermeer são freqüentemente associadas com as
pérolas que usam. A gota, ou a pérola em forma de lágrima que aparece em a Girl
with a Pearl Earring, foi retratada claramente em outras oito telas pintadas por
Vermeer: Woman with a Pearl Necklace, Woman with a Lute, The Concert, A
Lady Writing, Girl with a Red Hat, A Study of a Young Woman, Mistress and
Maid, e Lady Writing a Letter with Her Maid. Todos estes quadros datam de
meados de 1660.
Pearls are linked with vanity nut also with virginity – a wide enough iconographic
spectrum. The most beautiful pearl in Vermeer’s work is undoubtedly that worn
by the Girl with a Pearl Earring – a massive creation of highlights and shadows
and obscures shadows. The largest know pearls with a perfect skin or “orient”
had a circumference of 4 _ inches. Artificial pearls were invented by M. Jacquin
in France around this time, thin spheres of glass filled with l’essenced’orient, a
preparation made of white wox and silvery scales of a river fish called ablette, or
bleak, but cultured pearls were also coming in from Venice. This girl of
Vermeer’s seems to be wearing a glass “drop earring” which has been varnished
to look like an immense pearl; such earring were currently fashionable in
Holland, as cue see in paintings by Van Mieris, Metsu and Terborch. But
Vermeer’s pearl is probably could artificial, having been enlarged to such a size
by the painter’s imagination and desire to adorn the girl with something
spectacular (Bailey: 2002, 123-124).
Uma pérola de dimensões similares e forma pode ser vista na The Dice Players,
do pintor francês George de la Tour (1593-1692). De la Tour, curiosamente tem
sido chamado de “o Vermeer da noite”, enquanto este usa a luz do dia para
iluminar seus quadros, De la Tour, usa a luz das velas em ambientes noturnos .