The Goldfinch
This small painting depicts a European goldfinch, painted to scale at about four inches long, perched on its feedbox, to which it is attached by a fine gold chain looped on the brass ring that holds the box in place. The bird, shown in profile, turns toward the viewer with an alert, evocative expression.
Known for his innovative painting of the effects of light, here Fabritius used light and shadow conveyed in subtle tones to create a three-dimensional effect. He also used trompe d-oeil to make the painting appear real as it was hung in the kitchen, slightly above eye level, where the Dutch often kept goldfinches as pets. As Marco della Cava wrote of the work it is "a stark and faintly modernist rendition," with its fresh and simple immediacy, but the Calvinist audience of the era would have also have seen the goldfinch as a symbol of the resurrection, as its red spots and its feeding upon thistles were associated with Christ's passion.
Fabritius was only thirty-two when he was killed and most of his works were destroyed in a 1654 gunpowder explosion in Delft that destroyed a fourth of the city. Nevertheless, he was among the most admired of Rembrandt's students and would go on to influence Vermeer.
This enigmatic painting is at the center of Donna Tartt's novel The Goldfinch (2013), which is being made into a feature film of the same title.
