Thursday, July 15, 2010

Girl with a Pearl Earring

I saw this movie yesterday and although it didn't stir any emotions in me, (and therefore, in my opinion, not a good movie) I became interested in the painting. At the end of the movie, just before the credits, they show the real painting by Johannes Vermeer. It is quite a beautiful painting filled with mystery. Who is this girl? What is she thinking? Why is she looking at the painter like that?

After doing a search as to whether the story in the 2003 movie starring Scarlet Johanssen was true or false, I discovered a whole website dedicated to the painting and the analysis and history of it.

http://girl-with-a-pearl-earring.20m.com/


It is an amazing website with so much information! Turns out the girl is unknown to this day and the movie was based on a book by the same name. What an amazing painting!

I also never knew how a camera obscura worked, but it was used by Vermeer while painting this girl. It is amazing that a camera obscura could imprint whatever objects around it onto a canvas so that a painter could more accurately finish his masterpiece. I suppose it is a lot like a printing press for paiting. It was the beginning of photography.

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