Dimensions: 13.39" x 9.06" (34 cm x 23 cm)
Period: Dutch Golden Age
Created: 1654
Media: Oil Paint, Panel painting
Subject: European goldfinch
In Carel Fabritius’s tragically brief 32 years, he raced against fate to give the world fleeting glimpses of genius—13 surviving oil works, the best known being his 1654 illusionist tour de force, “The Goldfinch.”
In Goldfinch, Fabritius dons the wings of Apollo, guiding age-worn tools and pigments to take flight anew. A delicate stretch of eggshell hue warms like a ray of Delft sun as the leisurely goldfinch flutters nearer. Stroke by breathless stroke, the young master coaxes feather, claw, and watchful black eye to unchain themselves from the two dimensions trapping them. Fabritius peers through his creation’s bars at us—or are we the ones now mid-flight and yearning skyward?
A ghostly chain fastened to Fabritius’s nameless muse binds them still. Both may soon slip these mortal bonds—master shy of 33, songbird by intention or neglect. As in paint, in life man strives to resurrect that which is condemned as fragile or ephemeral into something which may endure in gilded frames or human hearts transformed by beauty revealed in anguished brushstrokes. Carel’s song lingers, carrying young voices like Donna Tartt’s novel to far futures. An explosion extinguished the Dutch Prometheus too early but flashed his legend across every age since.
The painting is currently housed in the Mauritshuis in The Hague, Netherlands.
