Pitfalls of overzealous iconodiagnosis of the Girl with a Pearl Earring

I read with interest the iconodiagnosis by Girolomoni et al. of Vermeer's masterpiece, The Girl with a Pearl Earring.1 They diagnosed alopecia areata solely on the seeming lack of eyebrows, eyelashes and an unusual headcover for the period, a turban.1 They also found that the lower lip had a small red area on the left side looking like an erosion that they attributed to syphilis, herpes or trauma.1 Their analysis suffers methodological flaws and bias. The iconodiagnostic approach, which progresses from the mere observation of a clinical anomaly in an artwork to formal publication, should adhere to a rigorous, step-by-step intellectual process as described elsewhere.2, 3 A frequent pitfall of iconodiagnosis is to overlook the ageing of paintings: pigments fade, surfaces deteriorate and later retouching may erase details that were originally visible. Here, although eyelashes are no longer visible to the naked eye, high-magnification examination and macroscopic X-ray fluorescence imaging have demonstrated that Vermeer did in fact paint them.4 Despite this evidence, the authors continued to argue for madarosis, illustrating a confirmation bias. They further attributed a functional role to the turban—namely, concealing a hypothetical hair loss (intentionality bias)—even though they simultaneously acknowledged that the sitter is most likely fictional and that the work is a tronie, a genre characterized by exaggerated features, expressive poses or exotic costume (such as the turban), again reflecting confirmation bias. Finally, the alleged erosion of the lower lip is highly subjective and not visually compelling (overinterpretation); moreover, macroscopic X-ray fluorescence imaging of the painting by van Loon et al.4 reveals a completely homogeneous lip, with no localized anomaly or enhancement at the site proposed by Girolomoni et al.1 Overall, the viewer can only conclude that The Girl with a Pearl Earring shows no clearly visible eyebrows—nothing more. In the absence of any pathobiographical data or other portraits of the sitter, the appropriate next step is to examine whether Vermeer depicted similar features in other works. In Study of a Young Woman (c. 1665–1667, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Figure 1), Vermeer painted a female half-figure against a dark background. Both works are of a similar size, were painted at around the same time and are both considered to be tronies.4 They feature two rather different looking young women, who share similar posture, eye gaze, clothing and pearl earring. The portrait has no visible eyelashes, exceedingly light eyebrows, a large forehead, a visible hairline and dark hairs (Figure 1). Besides in The Milkmaid (ca 1660) or in Woman Holding a Balance (1662–1663), eyebrows seem inexistent or very discreet. Vermeer has deliberately omitted certain details such as eyebrows for either stylistic, optical or cultural reasons. The model that inspired Vermeer may have had her eyebrows plucked. In the 12-13th centuries, criteria of beauty for a woman included, among others, blond hairs, blue eyes, plucked eyebrows and a high forehead.5 The false epidemic of frontal fibrosing alopecia cases in paintings from the 15th to the 17th centuries is due to overlooking the cultural and fashion trends of the time.6 The rapid examination of several Dutch 17th-century artists, such as Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667) or Frans van Mieris the Elder (1635–1681), shows that women have often thin eyebrows, large forehead and hairs pulled up backwards illustrating a hairstyle trend during that century in the Dutch Republic. In my opinion, Vermeer has not intended to depict any hair loss condition in The Girl with Pearl Earring. The author used ChatGPT (OpenAI) to improve the English language and readability of some parts of the manuscript. The content and scientific conclusions remain the sole responsibility of the author. None. None to disclose. Not applicable. Not applicable. Data sharing is not applicable—the article describes entirely theoretical research.