Scientists reveal the secret of the “Girl with a pearl earring”

Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring is one of the most famous paintings in the world, and now scientists believe they know why, by measuring how the brain reacts to viewing the work.

The Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, which houses the 17th-century masterpiece, commissioned neuroscientists to measure brain output when looking at the portrait and other famous works.

They discovered that the viewer is held captive by a special neurological phenomenon they called the Sustained Attentional Loop, which they believe is unique to The Girl With The Pearl Earring.

The viewer’s eye is automatically drawn first to the girl’s own eye, then down to her mouth, then to the pearl, then back to the eye – and so on.

This makes you look at the painting longer than others, explained Martin de Munnik, from the research company Neurensics that conducted the study.

“You have to pay attention to it whether you want to or not. You have to love it whether you want to or not,” he said.

By measuring brain waves, the scientists also found that the precuneus, the part of the brain that governs consciousness and personal identity, was more stimulated.

“It was predictable that the girl was special. But the ‘why’ was also a surprise to us,” said De Munnik.

He said it was the first known study to use EEG and MRI brain scanning machines to measure the neurological response to works of art.

“The longer you look at someone, the more beautiful or attractive someone becomes,” he noted, which also explains the popularity of the Dutch master’s subject.

“Why are you familiar with this painting and not the other paintings? Because of this special thing about it.”

“The brain doesn’t lie”

The scientists also compared the neurological response when looking at the real painting in a museum versus facing a reproduction.

They found that the emotional response experienced by the viewer was ten times stronger for an original than a poster.

To conduct the tests, the scientists attached an eye tracker and hood to track brain waves in 10 subjects who were shown the real paintings as well as the reproductions.

This shows the importance of seeing original art, said Mauritshuis director Martine Gosselink.

“It’s so important to engage with art, whether it’s photography, dance, or the old masters of the 17th century,” the director, 55, told AFP in an interview.

“It’s important and it really helps in brain development… The brain doesn’t lie,” she added.

Vermeer often drew the focus to one point in his works, with the surrounding details blurring, she explained.

However, “Girl with a Pearl Earring” has three such focal points — the eye, the mouth and the pearl — and Gosselink said that sets the work apart from Vermeer’s other paintings.

“Here we see someone really looking at you, whereas all the other Vermeer paintings, you see someone writing or doing some needlework, or a person busy doing something,” she said.

“But that’s the big difference with this girl. She’s looking at you.”

De Munnik, 65, said it would be interesting to carry out similar studies on other famous paintings, such as Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

The director of the Mauritshaus, Gosselink, hinted at a friendly rivalry between the two great works.

“People sometimes call (The Girl with the Pearl Earring) the Mona Lisa of the North, but I think times are changing, so maybe the Mona Lisa is the Girl of the South,” she joked.

© 2024 AFP