Vermeer's 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' undergoes scientific analysis at Mauritshuis

The Mauritshuis museum in The Hague has launched 'The Girl in the Spotlight,' a research project subjecting Johannes Vermeer's 1665 masterpiece 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' to two weeks of intensive scientific analysis until March 11. An international team from the Rijksmuseum, Delft University of Technology, University of Antwerp, and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands will use macro-XRF scanning to study the painting's layers, pigments, and materials 24 hours a day. Researcher Abbie Vandivere will explain findings to visitors in a live lab set up in the museum's Golden Room, while a 3D reproduction remains on display. The painting, often called the 'Mona Lisa of the North,' gained pop-icon status after Tracy Chevalier's 1999 novel and the 2003 film starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth.