What did the Girl with a Pearl Earring look like when Vermeer applied his final brushstroke to the canvas and he took the -now world-famous painting- off the easel? Are we still looking at the same painting as he once intended? And what painting techniques would he have used? In the freely accessible presentation Who's that Girl? the Mauritshuis shares key research findings on what the Girl must have looked like in 1665. The presentation in the museum's foyer also includes a mega-sized 3D print of the Girl, which you can see ánd touch. Thanks to very advanced research techniques, we have come a whole lot closer to Vermeer.
On the 4-metre-high 3D print, the painting as we know it today is depicted about 100 times larger. In a digital visualisation, visitors discover not only what the Girl looked like in 1665, but also what changes the work has undergone in the more than 350 years since, including the appearance of craquelure (small cracks in the paint or canvas). The presentation also gives more insight into Vermeer's painting technique. Visitors will learn all about the artist's pigments and materials. The presentation features a display case with the 10 pigments he used and a world map showing where they came from - cochineal made from insects found on Mexican and South American cacti and ultramarine which was made from precious stone from Afghanistan.
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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