'Beauty Comes From Somewhere We Can't Explain': Culture

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Because it’s Thanksgiving, and we sometimes need to take a break from politics, this writer found an interesting thread on Johannes Vermeer’s painting ‘Girl With a Pearl Earring.’

The painting itself has fascinated people for years — it was also the subject of an eponymous 2003 movie starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth.

Here’s Culture Critic doing a deep dive into the work and what it really means.

Why is this one of the most famous portraits in history?

Partly, because it isn’t actually a portrait. The girl you’re looking at isn’t real — nor is her earring.

Look closely and you’ll realize it’s all an illusion… (thread) 🧵 pic.twitter.com/vl6orGLuBy

— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) November 25, 2024

Vermeer is an interesting artist. This writer highly recommends watching the 2013 Penn and Teller (yes, Penn and Teller) documentary ‘Tim’s Vermeer‘. It explains how Vermeer worked and how one man with a lot of time and money recreated one of Vermeer’s works.

But we digress. Back to the girl:

Dutch master Johannes Vermeer painted her 150 years after the Mona Lisa, but she’s every bit as enigmatic.

Is she turning away or about to face us? What do her semi-open lips suggest she’s about to say? pic.twitter.com/I9SObJq9CI

— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) November 25, 2024

Interpretations abound.

Vermeer left more to our imagination than you first realize.

The borders of her nose and eyes are undefined, forcing our brains to fill in the gaps — so each individual viewer sees something different in her gaze. pic.twitter.com/IcPN1XbAc7

— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) November 25, 2024

There is no earring. It’s nothing but a few smudges of paint — again, our brains imagine they form a complete sphere. There isn’t even a chain attaching it, it just floats.

In fact, nothing here is real, including the girl… pic.twitter.com/KzTn9ubqGp

— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) November 25, 2024

Our eyes and brains give it meaning.

This girl isn’t a real person, she’s what’s known as a “tronie.”

Tronies were a genre of painting, common in the Dutch Golden Age, used to study a certain facial expression or to embody an abstract concept. pic.twitter.com/DQu8ZstN9P

— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) November 25, 2024

The more you know. This writer always wished she’d studied more art history.

For example, tronies could embody specific human virtues and vices, like wisdom, bravery, or malice.

Or they could represent the very idea of youth, old age, or the transience of life itself. pic.twitter.com/oqzifrunPq

— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) November 25, 2024

The purpose of art is to study and emulate and embody those things.

So if Vermeer was depicting not a real individual but an idea, what was that idea?

Well, despite being painted in Vermeer’s hometown of Delft, she’s clearly dressed in non-Western attire… pic.twitter.com/oBFaFvlTcP

— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) November 25, 2024

We always wondered about her dress.

She was painted during the 17th century Dutch Golden Age when a new, wealthy merchant class was rising.

Her oriental turban and oversized pearl likely represent this new access to faraway lands and luxury. pic.twitter.com/n6k16tPfn9

— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) November 25, 2024

That’s interesting.

But there’s more to her than that.

First, note that Vermeer was known for delicate compositions not of divine beauty in religious subjects, but the beauty of everyday life. pic.twitter.com/RBSkd1G78e

— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) November 25, 2024

One of the things this writer loves about Vermeer is the subject matter of his paintings.

His humble domestic scenes reveal the harmonies of ordinary existence, unlike the idealized grandeur of Renaissance art.

But Vermeer also weaved symbols into his paintings to carry deeper meaning… pic.twitter.com/WnqjdfcMml

— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) November 25, 2024

The details are just as important as the work itself.

In his “Allegory of Faith” (a personification of Catholicism) the woman’s pearls are a reference to her holy purity.

And above her head, a glass orb contains a panoramic view of the entire room… pic.twitter.com/nRgZqyWywN

— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) November 25, 2024

And Vermeer loved his details.

Viewed symbolically, it’s the idea that something small can capture the vastness of the universe.

Or the human mind, enlightened by faith in God, can begin to comprehend something far bigger than itself. pic.twitter.com/0qBEgss0bS

— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) November 25, 2024

We like this interpretation.

Maybe this girl’s pearl also represents something bigger — we’re drawn to its light as we are her wetted lips and glistening eyes.

Note that, as lifelike as she is, look closer at the brushwork and she’s less real than you thought… pic.twitter.com/JBfavMcGEQ

— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) November 25, 2024

There’s something incredibly intriguing about her.

There’s an angelic beauty about her that you can’t put your finger on. She’s not a person but an idea — of beauty itself, and its allure we can’t explain.

Perhaps that’s because beauty, even that in everyday life, comes from somewhere we can’t explain… pic.twitter.com/HkbmOK2MQ8

— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) November 25, 2024

Perhaps it does.