Johannes Vermeer, the painter of 'Girl with a Pearl Earring,' is celebrated for his incredible mastery of light and domestic stillness. For years, art historians have debated whether Vermeer used a 'camera obscura'—a primitive optical device that projects an image through a lens—to help him achieve his photorealistic effects. Unlike other artists of the Dutch Golden Age, Vermeer’s work often features a 'disk of confusion,' or soft-focus highlights, which are characteristic of images seen through an early lens rather than the naked eye. He produced very few paintings, only about 34 are known today, and he worked with extremely expensive pigments like natural ultramarine made from lapis lazuli. His work was largely forgotten for two centuries after his death until he was rediscovered in the 19th century, eventually becoming one of the most revered figures in art history.