Girl With A Pearl Earring Analysis

I. Introduction:The Paragone The comparison of the arts dates as far back as the Italian Renaissance, with the idea of the paragone. As “the notion of comparison and rivalry among the arts,” the paragone has worked to compare all aspects of the arts, stemming from the debate pitting sculpture against painting and reaching into the debate comparing poetry and painting. When examining the painting, film, and the novel with the name Girl with a Pearl Earring, we must look to the paragone of ekphrasis in it’s different forms. Taking inspiration from Vermeer’s painting Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier’s novel and Peter Webber’s film follow a very similar story line. However, as the film and the book use different mediums, each implements different forms of ekphrasis to
Vermeer lived in Delft with his Catholic wife Catharina, her mother, Maria Thins, and their 11 children. Vermeer often used sets from around his home and his wife’s clothing in his paintings, which largely portrayed young women in home settings. We also know very little about his painting Girl with a Pearl Earring. The model is set in a strange costume and placed against a dark background, holding “no attributes that might…identify her as an allegorical figure.” The painting is captivating, however, featuring a young model with wide eyes whose head is turned back to face the viewer. As Edward Snow noted, “it is me at whom she gazes, with real, unguarded human emotions, and with an intensity that demands something just as real and human in return.” Vermeer’s models, like this one, are “a world apart, inviolate, self-contained,” furthering the mystery of the story behind his models, leaving the viewer intrigued. The mystery of Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring provided a relatively blank canvas for Tracy Chevalier and Peter Webber to paint their own story of the