Johannes Vermeer’s Girl With The Pearl Earring is one of the world’s most popular paintings. It can be seen at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague.
The museum asked the scientists to measure people’s brain response when viewing the portrait and other art.
To carry out the tests, scientists attached an eye tracker and cap to study the brainwaves on 10 people that were shown the real paintings, but also replicas.
They discovered that the person looking at the painting is affected by a special brain phenomenon they called “Sustained Attentional Loop”, which they believe is unique to the ‘Girl With The Pearl Earring’.
This is because the viewer’s eye is drawn first to the girl’s eye, then to her mouth, then across to the pearl, then back to the eye repeatedly.
Martin de Munnik, from the company that did the study, said this makes you look at the painting for longer. He said: “You have to pay attention whether you want to or not.”