Scripta 9_2_link_final.pdf - Uniandrade

Fig. 6 – Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring – Meisje met de parel – (Delft, 1665-
67), oil painting, 18¼ x 15¾ in. Mauritshuis, The Hague.
The character Griet convinces as a proud model sitting for her
master with whom she is deeply involved. The pearl earring, besides balancing
the light of the composition, has another prime role in the plot: it is the
central element which connects and pushes muse and master away from
each other. Here we encounter the novel’s ‘pregnant moment’ since the very
moment before the climax of the novel does connect the reader’s mind
with the two media involved, the painting as the source and the literary text
as the verbal target.
Finally, the description below is part of the novel’s introduction
when Vermeer meets Griet for the first time: “I always laid vegetables out
in a circle, each with its own section like a slice of pie. There were five slices:
red cabbage, onions, leeks, carrots, and turnips. I had used a knife edge to
shape each slice, and placed a carrot disc in the center.” (CHEVALIER,
1999, p. 5). According to Liliane Louvel, the fifth level of pictorial saturation
is called aesthetic or artistic arrangement and it is found in a character’s gaze.
Although the pictorial lexis is evident in the description above, there is no
direct reference to a specific painting (LOUVEL, 2001, p. 182). The text
serves as a frame for the description of the painting. The narrator works
with words the way a painter would work with a brush on canvas. The
description expands the narrative, extending the protagonist’s view and
enabling the reader to perceive it through the character’s eyes while “the
text dreams with the image” 1 (LOUVEL, 2006, p. 217).
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