The painting is a tronie, the Dutch 17th-century description of a "head" that was not meant to be a portrait. It depicts a European girl wearing "exotic dress", an "oriental turban", and what appears to be a very large pearl as an earring.[1] The subject of the painting is unknown, with it being possible either that she was a real model, or that Vermeer created a more generalised and mysterious woman, perhaps representing a Sibyl or biblical figure. There has been speculation that she is the artist's eldest daughter, Maria, though this has been dismissed as an anachronism by some art historians.