Girl with a Pearl Earring

A real pearl this size, in 1665 Delft, was worth more than Vermeer earned in a year. The Dutch East India Company hauled the world's pearls from the Persian Gulf and Ceylon. Those who couldn't afford one wore Venetian glass beads coated in essence d'orient, an iridescent paste distilled from the scales of small European river fish. Now at Mauritshuis, The Hague.