June 01, 2009

Pearls in Paintings

When we think of pearls in painting, a lot of us possibly automatically think of the Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer's however there are many more paintings out there where the sitters are draped in pearls.

Nicholas Hilliard’s painting of the Pelican Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I can be found in the Liverpool Museum. Here Queen Elizabeth I is depicted almost swamped in pearls that hang from her dress. They can also be found in her head piece and necklace which supports an incredibly large drop pearl, off set against her pale English rose skin.

But pearls have not always been just for women. In this portrait by Steven van der Muelen (c.1560), Sir Robert Dudley; the Earl of Leicester wears pearls in his portrait. They were a very clear sign to the viewer that the sitter was wealthy and in turn powerful. Both of these paintings share this in common and this is perhaps another reason why Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring is so strange. From looking at her clothes she is obviously not a wealthy woman, yet what is she doing with not only a pearl earring but such a large pearl? Although I enjoyed the film that was based on this very painting, the answers it provided to these questions were possibly fictitious in order to make a good movie.

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Posted: June 1, 2009 12:38 PM