The Girl in the Spotlight: Vermeer at work, his materials and techniques in Girl with a Pearl Earring

Abbie  Vandivere; Jørgen Wadum; Emilien Leonhardt

doi:10.1186/s40494-020-0359-6

The Girl in the Spotlight: Vermeer at work, his materials and techniques in Girl with a Pearl Earring

Abbie Vandivere, Jørgen Wadum, Emilien Leonhardt

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Abstract

The 2018 technical examination project The Girl in the Spotlight aimed to characterise the materials and techniques that Johannes Vermeer used to paint Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665, Mauritshuis). Five research questions guided the micro- and macro-scale analyses: What can we find out about layers beneath the surface? What steps did Vermeer take to create the painting? Which materials did Vermeer use and where did they come from? Which techniques did Vermeer use to create subtle optical effects? What did the painting look like originally, and how has it changed? This paper concludes the special issue of Heritage Science by summarising the results and putting them in an art-historical and materials history context. Non-invasive macroscopic imaging methods were used to examine the Girl, in conjunction with the (re)analysis of microscopic samples. Here, Vermeer’s painting techniques are revealed using microphotographs made using a high-resolution 3D digital microscope at 140× magnification (1.1 μm/pixel).

Original language	English
Article number	20 (2020)
Journal	Heritage Science
Volume	8
Number of pages	10
ISSN	2050-7445
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/s40494-020-0359-6
Publication status	Published - 2 Mar 2020

Bibliographical note

This is the final article in a series of publications on the examination of Johannes Vermeer's 'Girl with a Pearl Earring'.

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Cite this

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title = "The Girl in the Spotlight: Vermeer at work, his materials and techniques in Girl with a Pearl Earring",

abstract = "The 2018 technical examination project The Girl in the Spotlight aimed to characterise the materials and techniques that Johannes Vermeer used to paint Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665, Mauritshuis). Five research questions guided the micro- and macro-scale analyses: What can we find out about layers beneath the surface? What steps did Vermeer take to create the painting? Which materials did Vermeer use and where did they come from? Which techniques did Vermeer use to create subtle optical effects? What did the painting look like originally, and how has it changed? This paper concludes the special issue of Heritage Science by summarising the results and putting them in an art-historical and materials history context. Non-invasive macroscopic imaging methods were used to examine the Girl, in conjunction with the (re)analysis of microscopic samples. Here, Vermeer{\textquoteright}s painting techniques are revealed using microphotographs made using a high-resolution 3D digital microscope at 140× magnification (1.1 μm/pixel).",

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T1 - The Girl in the Spotlight: Vermeer at work, his materials and techniques in Girl with a Pearl Earring

AU - Vandivere, Abbie

AU - Wadum, Jørgen

AU - Leonhardt, Emilien

N1 - This is the final article in a series of publications on the examination of Johannes Vermeer's 'Girl with a Pearl Earring'.

PY - 2020/3/2

Y1 - 2020/3/2

N2 - The 2018 technical examination project The Girl in the Spotlight aimed to characterise the materials and techniques that Johannes Vermeer used to paint Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665, Mauritshuis). Five research questions guided the micro- and macro-scale analyses: What can we find out about layers beneath the surface? What steps did Vermeer take to create the painting? Which materials did Vermeer use and where did they come from? Which techniques did Vermeer use to create subtle optical effects? What did the painting look like originally, and how has it changed? This paper concludes the special issue of Heritage Science by summarising the results and putting them in an art-historical and materials history context. Non-invasive macroscopic imaging methods were used to examine the Girl, in conjunction with the (re)analysis of microscopic samples. Here, Vermeer’s painting techniques are revealed using microphotographs made using a high-resolution 3D digital microscope at 140× magnification (1.1 μm/pixel).

AB - The 2018 technical examination project The Girl in the Spotlight aimed to characterise the materials and techniques that Johannes Vermeer used to paint Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665, Mauritshuis). Five research questions guided the micro- and macro-scale analyses: What can we find out about layers beneath the surface? What steps did Vermeer take to create the painting? Which materials did Vermeer use and where did they come from? Which techniques did Vermeer use to create subtle optical effects? What did the painting look like originally, and how has it changed? This paper concludes the special issue of Heritage Science by summarising the results and putting them in an art-historical and materials history context. Non-invasive macroscopic imaging methods were used to examine the Girl, in conjunction with the (re)analysis of microscopic samples. Here, Vermeer’s painting techniques are revealed using microphotographs made using a high-resolution 3D digital microscope at 140× magnification (1.1 μm/pixel).

UR - https://www.mauritshuis.nl/en/discover/exhibitions/the-girl-in-the-spotlight/

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DO - 10.1186/s40494-020-0359-6

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JO - Heritage Science

JF - Heritage Science

M1 - 20 (2020)

ER -

The Girl in the Spotlight: Vermeer at work, his materials and techniques in Girl with a Pearl Earring

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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