“Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer, 17th-century Dutch painter. I first saw it when I was 19, and I immediately went out and got a poster of it, and in fact I still have that poster 30 years later its hanging in my house. Its accompanied me everywhere Ive gone, I never tire of looking at her.

One day, 16 years after I had this poster on my wall, I lay in bed and looked at her, and I suddenly thought, I wonder what the painter did to her to make her look like that. And it was the first time Id ever thought that the expression on her face is actually reflecting how she feels about him. Always before Id thought of it as a portrait of a girl. Now I began to think of it as a portrait of a relationship. And I thought, well, what is that relationship?

So heres how I came up with the story. First of all, I thought, Ive got to get her into the house. How does Vermeer know her? Well, thereve been suggestions that she is his 12-yearold daughter. The daughter at the time was 12 when he painted the painting. And I thought, no, its a very intimate look, but its not a look a daughter gives her father. For one thing, in Dutch painting of the time, if a womans mouth was open, it was indicating sexual availability. It would have been inappropriate for Vermeer to paint his daughter like that.

《戴珍珠耳環(huán)的少女》是17世紀荷蘭畫家約翰尼斯·維米爾的作品。我19歲時，第一次看到這幅畫后，我立刻出去買了一張這幅畫的復制畫，事實上，我現(xiàn)在仍然保留著那幅畫。30年后，這幅畫仍然在我家掛著。我去哪兒都帶著它，絲毫不厭倦地欣賞著它。

在這幅畫已經在我家墻上掛了16年后的一天，我躺在床上看著她，突然好奇畫家是如何使得她做出這樣一副神情。我第一次覺得她臉上的神情其實表現(xiàn)出的是她對畫家的感情。一直以來我都認為它只是一幅少女肖像畫?，F(xiàn)在我開始覺得它是一段感情的“肖像”。然后我開始陷入思考：嗯，那是一段怎樣的感情呢？

而以下就是我想象出來的故事。首先，我認為必須先把她帶進畫家的家。維米爾是如何認識她的呢？有人認為她是維米爾12歲的女兒。他的女兒在他畫這幅畫時，正是12歲。而我認為不然，這是十分親密的神情，但絕不是一個女兒看待父親的神情。原因很簡單，那個時期的荷蘭繪畫風格中，如果一個女人的嘴是張開的，則屬于性暗示。所以如果說維米爾所畫的是他女兒，這根本不合適。

So its not his daughter, but its somebody close to him, physically close to him. Well, who else would be in the house? A servant, a lovely servant. So, shes in the house. How do we get her into the studio? We dont know very much about Vermeer, but the little bits that we do know, one thing we know is that he married a Catholic woman, they lived with her mother in a house where he had his own room where he—his studio. He also had 11 children. It would have been a chaotic, noisy household. And if youve seen Vermeers paintings before, you know that theyre incredibly calm and quiet.

How does a painter paint such calm, quiet paintings with 11 kids around? Well, he compartmentalizes his life. He gets to his studio, and he says, “Nobody comes in here. Not the wife, not the kids. OK, the maid can come in and clean.” Shes in the studio. Hes got her in the studio, theyre together. And he decides to paint her.

He has her wear very plain clothes. Now, all of the women, or most of the women in Vermeers other paintings wore velvet, silk, fur, very 1)sumptuous materials. This is very plain; the only thing that isnt plain is her pearl earring. Now, if shes a servant, there is no way she could afford a pair of pearl earrings. So those are not her pearl earrings. Whose are they? We happen to know, theres a list of Catharina, the wifes clothes. Amongst them a yellow coat with white fur, a yellow and black 2)bodice, and you see these clothes on lots of other paintings, different women in the paintings, in Vermeers paintings. So clearly, her clothes were lent to various different women. Its not such a leap of faith to take that that pearl earring actually belongs to his wife.

So weve got all the elements for our story. Shes in the studio with him for a long time. Shes wearing his wifes pearl earring. Shes gorgeous. She obviously loves him. Shes conflicted. And does the wife know? Maybe not. And if she doesnt, well—thats the story.

所以，那不是他的女兒，而是他身邊的人，能夠接近他的人。那他家里還有其他什么人呢？傭人，一位漂亮的傭人。這樣，她就在維米爾家里。那她又是如何進入畫室里的呢？我們并不是很了解維米爾，但有一點我們能夠確定的是，他的妻子是天主教徒，他們和她的母親住在一起，維米爾擁有自己的房間——就是他的畫室。他還有11個孩子，所以那應該是混亂、嘈雜的一大家子。倘若你看過維米爾的畫作，你就會知道它們都表現(xiàn)出難以置信的沉著和寧靜。

維米爾家里有11個孩子，他是如何畫出這些沉著、寧靜的作品呢？是的，他把作畫和生活的界限劃分得十分清楚。他走進畫室時會說，“任何人不許進來。不許妻子進來，也不許孩子進來。好吧，傭人可以進來打掃?！彼瓦@樣進入了畫室。他允許她進入畫室，他們在一起了。他決定為她作畫。

他為她畫上了相當樸素的衣裳。但是，幾乎所有維米爾所畫的女人，或者說大部分的女人穿的都是天鵝絨、絲綢或者皮草的衣服，這些都是非常華麗的材質。而這個少女穿著相當樸素；唯一不樸素的是她的珍珠耳環(huán)。如果她是傭人，她絕不可能買得起一對珍珠耳環(huán)。所以那珍珠耳環(huán)不是她的。那是誰的呢？我們恰好有他的妻子凱瑟琳的衣服清單。其中有一件鑲有白色毛皮的黃色外套，一件黃黑相間的上衣，在維米爾許多的畫作里都可以看到這些衣服，他的畫作里不同的女人都穿著這些衣服。因此很明顯，他妻子的衣服曾借給許多女人。所以如果說那對珍珠耳環(huán)為他妻子所有，并不是毫無根據的。

講到這里，我們已經有了故事的所有要素。少女和維米爾在畫室共處了很長時間。她戴著維米爾妻子的珍珠耳環(huán)。她漂亮極了，很明顯，她愛著維米爾。同時，她也很矛盾。維米爾的妻子知情嗎？或許不。倘若她并不知情，好吧——故事到此為止了。翻譯：Cass