Goofs

When Van Ruijven comes to dinner, to discuss a new commission for Vermeer, he grabs Griet and she drops the dishes she is carrying. She leans down to pick them up placing a broken piece on top of one that isn't. When she stands back up neither plate she has in her hand is broken.

When Griet first hears the rumors about herself, her cap changes from square flaps (walking to the market) to pointed flaps (talking to Pieter the butcher's son at the market) and back to square flaps again (talking to Vermeer and his patron back at home again).

When Vermeer shows Griet the camera obscura, the scene that is set up for the painting is the one he just sold of the woman examining the pearls in the mirror. But when Griet looks into the camera, it's the scene with the woman at the window.

As Vermeer starts to paint Griet he is wearing a shirt that ties at the collar. At the easel it is tied loosely in a double knot baring some of his upper chest. When Griet goes into the storeroom and Vermeer follows and stares at her the strings of the shirt are now tied tightly to his neck.

At the dinner party, when Van Ruijven is looking at the painting created by Vermeer you can see that two similar, but slightly different paintings are used for the scene.

When Griet and Vermeer look at the clouds standing in front of the window, it's winter (according to the scenes before and after this one). Nevertheless, you can hear the sounds of swallows squeaking. These birds are only in The Netherlands in summer.

In the movie, Vermeer uses the painting "The Procuress" as a prop in a handful of paintings. However, in the movie, the painting has different dimensions then in the actual painting.

Before Vermeer pierces Griet's ear, he holds the needle in a flame "apparently" to sterilize it, which was not done until the 1860's by Pasteur. But in the past it was believed that heating a needle or a knife would reduce pain and speed up wound healing. Of course, not certain if the filmmakers made this scene with this in mind or for that purpose.

The hands cutting the vegetables at the beginning of the movie are not Scarlett Johansson's hands.

Whilst looking at the clouds out of the window together, both Scarlett Johansson (Griet) and Colin Firth (Vermeer) are visibly trying to stop themselves from giggling.

The beetroot being sliced (at the start of the movie) is far too soft-it may have already been boiled. Yet all the other vegetables appear to be raw.

When Griet and Pieter are walking on a lane in the countryside, in the distance you can see a man riding a bicycle. Bicycles were invented in the 18th century while the film takes place in 1665.

The vegetables shown in the opening scene and in the market are too perfectly shaped to have been grown in 17th-century gardens. That level of perfection is the result of decades of attention to growing only the prettiest veggies, not those that taste good. Hard-to-find "heirloom" varieties can be ugly but much tastier and would have been all that existed up until the 20th century.

The camera obscura is partially made of plywood, which was invented in the 1930s.

The fork with four points (they are shown among other tools during preparation for the celebration of the baby's birth and Vermeer's new painting) was invented in the 18th century, almost one century after the film's action.

When Griet poses for the first time in the film (about 30 minutes in) you see her with one hand on the window and with the other holding a water pitcher. This is taken from a painting Johannes Vermeer made in 1662-1663, called: Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, but the film takes place in 1665.