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

looking out the window, down to her right. She is wearing a yellow and black
fitted bodice of silk and velvet, a dark blue skirt, and a white cap that hangs down
in two points below her chin.’ … ‘When you look at the cap long enough’ ... ‘you
see that he has not really painted it white, but blue, and violet, and yellow.’ ‘But
it’s a whitecap, you said.’ ‘Yes, that’s what is so strange. It’s painted many
colours, but when you look at it, you think it’s white.’ ‘Tile painting is much
simpler,’ my father grumbled. ‘You use blue and that’s all. A dark blue for the
outlines, a light blue for the shadows. Blue is blue.’ … I wanted him to
understand that white was not simply white. It was a lesson my master had taught
me. ‘What is she doing?’ ... ‘She has one hand on a pewter pitcher sitting on a
table and one on a window she’s partly opened. She’s about to pick up the pitcher
and dump the water from it out the window, but she’s stopped in the middle of
what she’s doing and is either dreaming or looking at something in the street.’
‘Which is she doing?’ ‘I don’t know. Sometimes it seems one thing, sometimes
the other.’ ... ‘First you say the ca pis white but not painted white. Then you say
the girl is doing one thing or maybe another, you’re confusing me.’ … ‘I’m trying
to describe it accurately.’ ‘But what is the story in the painting?’ ‘His paintings
don’t tell stories’” (95-97).
Além das suas tarefas habituais (lavar a roupa, dar a ferro e fazer as compras no
mercado), Griet é encarregada da limpeza do ateliê de Vermeer, ao qual ninguém
da casa tinha acesso, com excepção da sua poderosa sogra, a matriarca Maria
Thins, que valoriza a esperteza de Griet, mas reconhece que pode causar
problemas. Utilizando-se das habilidades desenvolvidas em função da cegueira do
pai, Griet limpa os móveis e objetos do estúdio, sem mudá-los de lugar. Isso gera
uma situação de ainda maior conflito entre Griet e Catharina, grávida do sexto
filho, e ciumenta da crescente intimidade entre seu marido e a jovem criada, que
partilha um espaço onde não tem acesso, bem como a total falta de sensibilidade
para com o trabalho desempenhado pelo marido:
“... I asked her if I should clean the windows. ...’Why not?’ she answered
sharplhy. ‘You do not need to ask me such petty things.’ ‘Because of the light,
madam, ‘ I explained. ‘It might change the painting if I clean them. You see?’
She didd not see. ... Catharina went downstairs to ask him and called up me to
leave the windows” (43-44).
Ao desempenhar suas tarefas na limpeza do estúdio, a jovem fica cada vez mais
próxima do misterioso pintor e ele devagar a introduz no mundo das seus quadros