Vermeer represents the quieter side of Baroque art. While Italian and Flemish Baroque painters created large, dramatic religious and mythological scenes, Dutch Golden Age artists like Vermeer focused on intimate interior scenes and portraits. Yet his work shares the Baroque fascination with light and its effects on surfaces and textures.
The painting demonstrates Baroque principles applied to a smaller scale and different subject matter. The dramatic lighting emerging from the left side creates strong tonal contrasts. The exotic costume—particularly the turban—reflects the Baroque interest in the foreign and unusual. The pearl earring serves as a focal point, drawing the eye with its lustrous highlight.
Vermeer's technical approach involved careful observation and likely the use of a camera obscura, an optical device that projects images. This allowed him to capture subtle effects of light with remarkable precision. The smooth, almost photographic quality of his surfaces differs from the more gestural brushwork of other Baroque painters, yet achieves similar effects of depth and luminosity.