Emily's Musings

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Time for a Sunday afternoon matinee: Saw Girl with A Pearl Earring. I really liked the book -- and think it worked better than the movie did. The movie looked great, but was painfully slow at times and really missed the perspective the book allowed us on the girl's feelings.

The movie did fit in well with what I'm reading now, which is Home: A short history of an idea by Witold Rybczynski. He uses art and literature to show the evolution of the idea of home and comfort through the ages. Of Vermeer, he writes:

Jan Vermeer, another Delft painer, was predominantly interested in the female human figure and less in the domestic interior, but since almost all his masterly paintings are set in the home, they also convey something of its character. His subjects act with a concentration that is mirrored in the still atmosphere of the room and its furnishings. Through Vermeer's paintings we can see how the house has changed: it has become a setting for private acts and personal moments. (71)