Pearl
A luxury symbol associated with purity, wealth, and — because pearls come from the sea and were believed formed by moisture — chastity and the Virgin Mary.
Pearls appear constantly in Northern European portraiture as a straightforward marker of status: they were genuinely expensive, and painting them well (their soft, layered luminosity is technically difficult) was itself a display of skill. In religious painting, their association with purity made them a recurring attribute of the Virgin.
Pearl in the collection
Paintings in the catalog documented as featuring this symbol.
