Nicknamed the Dutch Mona Lisa, Johannes Vermeer’s (1632 – 1675) “Girl with a Pearl Earring” is touted as the crown jewel of the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis. As the 17th Century residence-turned-museum in The Hague undergoes an extensive renovation, Vermeer’s famous portrait of a moonfaced young lady in three-quarter view is on a world tour, with stops in Tokyo, Kobe, San Francisco, Atlanta and now New York before continuing to Italy.

Vermeer, Rembrandt and Hals: Masterpieces of Dutch Painting from the Mauritshuis, on view at the Frick through January 19th, features 15 canvases from the Dutch Golden Age. “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” the sole work in the museum’s Oval Room, is positioned to accommodate the inevitable crowds. Classified as a tronie, a subcategory of Dutch portraiture depicting stock characters often in costume, this iconic canvas was the inspiration for Tracy Chevalier’s novel “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” a New York Times bestseller adapted into a 2003 movie starring Scarlett Johansson as Vermeer’s maid-turned-muse.

Though the Frick gift shop is overrun with “Pearl Earring” mugs, tote bags, watches, pendants and calendars, Vermeer’s painting is, in fact, damaged and has undergone intense restoration over the years. While the canvas appears pristine, “Girl with a Pearl Earring” has been thoroughly retouched by conservators, with highlights removed and revealed, nicks and scrapes repainted, glazes wiped away. The repairs have left the mysterious figure’s face pasty and flat.

The rest of the exhibition, fourteen paintings displayed in the adjoining East Gallery, has several treasures to offer visitors, along with thinner crowds. Like Vermeer, Carel Fabritius (1622 – 1654) painted in Delft. A student of Rembrandt (1606-1669), Fabritius and many of his paintings were victims of the Delft Thunderclap of 1654, a massive explosion of stored gunpowder that rocked the city.

That year the artist created “The Goldfinch,” a painting of a modest subject, yet a work of tremendous poetry. In the small panel a pet bird, rendered in soft, short strokes, is chained at the leg to a bar affixed to a wall. Though the bird is confined to its perch, the daylight that bathes this scene conveys the world beyond.

Four Rembrandt canvases are here, including “‘Tronie’ of a Man with a Feathered Beret,” c. 1635-40. In this bust of a costumed figure, the billowy feathers of the sitter’s hat, flopped this way and that, add to the feeling of air circulating through the painting.

Jacob van Ruisdael’s (1628/29–1682) “View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds” presents a panorama of fields and the Haarlem city skyline. Here dramatic cloud formations are prominent above a low horizon. At a bleachery in the foreground long sheets of linen are stretched across a field. Though the light in this landscape is complicated, overcast in areas, bright with sunlight in places, the scene is remarkably unified.

Two interiors by Jan Steen (1626-1679), one small, one large, are highlights of the exhibition. In “The Oyster Eater” a fresh-faced girl sprinkles salt on an oyster while flirtatiously gazing out at the viewer. The panel, only eight inches tall, is packed, including a tabletop still life, the surrounding room and the kitchen visible through an open door.

“As the Old Sing, So Pipe the Young,” 1668-70, Steen’s largest known work, is a painting with a moral message. Here parents and grandparents drink, eat and sing as children, following the poor example of their elders, smoke and play music. Figures crammed around a table, tight against the wall, the space in this painting is compressed; yet every form in this artwork is fully articulated and the fluid lines of the design guide the eye effortlessly through the composition.

With the unparalleled wealth of the Dutch Republic during the 17th Century, Netherlandish painting flourished. During the Dutch Golden Age artists tackled a wide variety of subjects–still life, portraiture, landscapes, genre scenes and history painting– using diverse styles; the rowdy interiors of Jan Steen and the quiet, light-filled rooms of Vermeer, the painterly bravado of Frans Hals and the finely detailed vanitas of Pieter Claesz, were sold on the open market to patrons who knew their own minds.

Though Vermeer is not shown to best advantage here, no city has more works by the Sphinx of Delft than New York. And thanks to this marvelous, varied exhibition, museum visitors can better understand the Dutch art world that gave rise to so many masterpieces beyond “Girl with a Pearl Earring”.

Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Hals: Masterpieces of Dutch Painting from the Mauritshuis, on view through January 19, 2014 at The Frick Collection, 1 East 70th Street, 212-288-0700, www.frick.org

More information about Xico Greenwald’s work can be found at xicogreenwald.com