‘Girl With a Pearl Earring’: The World of the 17th Century

Girl With a Pearl Earring is the story of the painting of the same name. It takes place in the 1660s in the Netherlands, a far cry from the Mountain West of the US.

Of course, the culture of the 17th century is a far cry from any modern culture. Societal norms and expectations are worlds away from where they are now. Girl With a Pearl Earring shows a world that nobody nowadays would fully comprehend.

Cleanliness

One of the things I was most struck by in Girl With a Pearl Earring is the standard of hygiene that people kept. Griet (Scarlett Johansson) goes into the market to buy some meat for her employer; Pieter (Cillian Murphy), the butcher’s son, appears and hands some meat to Griet with his bare, bloody hands. And when I say bloody, I mean the man is basically covered in blood. Handing out meat to customers, who are also handling said meat with their bare hands. It’s revolting.

Of course, this would have been commonplace during the 17th century. It’s not like people were washing their hands after using the bathroom, so what would a little blood matter? Germs weren’t necessarily the first thing on people’s minds. Most people were just trying to make ends meet.

Additionally, the Dutch diet at the time was heavy in vegetables and other raw produce, as evidenced by the large feast that Griet and the other servants help prepare. You know no one was washing that produce. People were probably casually eating foods with all kinds of diseases and other unsavory things on them.

Fashion

Fashions change by the week, so it’s no surprise that the fashions of the 17th century were different than what we wear today. However, one thing that struck me in Girl With a Pearl Earring is how unprepared the people seemed to be for the weather. When Griet goes out in the winter snow to buy supplies for the family she works for, she wraps herself in nothing but a thin blanket. While Vermeer (Colin Firth) does comment on how thin it is, the other people in the town are also wearing such thin clothes. I can’t imagine how cold that must have been.

Women wore dresses, which also isn’t surprising. That fashion norm was standard for much of history. The fashion for Dutch men was interesting at this time though. Pieter wears a stocking cap, though he keeps most of it pulled off his head. He looks like a stereotypical medieval serf from Monty Python. Pairing that with his equally thin clothing, he looks like quite a sight to us, but fits right in with the culture.

Lower-class women, such as servants, were bound by societal standards to cover their hair. We only get to see Griet’s beautiful red hair once during the film. When Vermeer asks Griet to change out her white bonnet for a blue wrap, the disgust and fear are apparent in Griet’s eyes. That’s just not what women did during this time.

Art

Girl With a Pearl Earring centers around art. Vermeer is a painter. Not only that, but he’s an employed painter. People will pay him to create certain selected scenes. He’s very lucky to have someone to pay for his paintings. This is one similarity between today’s culture and the past — it’s hard to make ends meet as an artist and very few can live like Vermeer.

One thing that Vermeer faces that most modern artists do not is that he has to create his own paints. He can’t go to his local Michael’s and pick up a few tubes of acrylic paint; he has to purchase ingredients and make the colors himself. Not only does he have a studio for painting, but he also has an attic where he mixes the paints. To be an artist, one must also be a chemist of sorts during this time.

Artists still face the same creativity blocks back then that they do today. While Vermeer could paint whatever he wanted for the most part, he made his money by painting what wealthy patrons commissioned him to paint. It’s the same way modern artists on social media take commissions for drawings. However, it seems that in the 17th century, people didn’t haggle over the price as much as they do now. Painting was greatly valued and paying a lot of money for one was expected.

Job Market

Griet initially comes to work for Vermeer’s family because her own family has very little money. Nowadays, if your family has very little money, you get a job at a local fast-food restaurant or convenience store. That option wasn’t necessarily available back then. One of the best ways in the 17th century to make money, especially as a young woman, was to work as a maid for a wealthier family.

Being in the family business was of the utmost importance at this time. Pieter grew up around his father, the butcher, and so he, too, becomes a butcher. To deviate from that would be uncommon. The wealth of the Vermeer family would go to the children, who would continue the wealthy lifestyle they grew up with. It’s not too different from today’s time, just in how much pressure society puts on said people.

Follow MovieBabble on Twitter @MovieBabble_ and Kali Tuttle @tuttle_kali2.

Thank you for reading! What are your thoughts on Girl With a Pearl Earring? Comment down below!

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to MovieBabble via email to stay up to date on our latest work.

Join MovieBabble on Patreon so that new content will always be possible.