[ART] The Most Famous Bird in the History of Art 🎨

On the 12th of October 1654, large parts of the city of Delft were destroyed when a storage facility for gunpowder exploded. One of the many victims of the explosion was Carel Fabritius, a young artist who had studied under Rembrandt. He was predicted to become a great master by both his mentor and the art establishment. Fabritius had moved to Delft after completing his studies in Amsterdam and was on the brink of his breakthrough at the time of the accident, which in addition to his life also deprived the world of the lion's share of his artistic work. 

"Thus did this Phoenix, to our loss, expire,
In the midstand at the height of his powers,
But happily there arose out of the fire
Vermeer, who masterfully trod in his path."
- Arnold Bon, 1667

One of the few works by Fabritius that survived the explosion was "The Goldfinch", painted just a few months before the tragic accident. The painting is so small that it would fit in a briefcase (the exact dimensions are 33.5 by 22.8 cm or 13.2 by 9.0 in), and today it hangs at the Mauritshuis gallery in The Hague, next to the Vermeer room with the famous "Girl with a Pearl Earring".

As opposed to Rembrandt's other pupils, who employed his well defined chiaroscuro technique, Fabritius gained a bold independence from his master and used a different technique. Fabritius doesn't put all the light on the subjects, but instead allows them to appear as dark or delicately lit figures against a bright background. The starkly white-washed wall in "The Goldfinch" is literally drowning in light. The painting has a general brilliance to it, an aurulent glow that would influence Dutch painting in general, but Vermeer (the greatest painter of walls in the history of art dare I say) in particular.

Studying the painting up close, one can see that it's painted with coarse and clearly visible brush strokes and with scratches in the paint, but Fabritius still magically manages to show the fragility of the little bird. Compared to most of the photographic reproductions I've found of the painting, studying it at the museum, the background around the goldfinch is almost shiny white (underlined by the dark frame), which elevates the contrast against the bird chained to the feeder bolted to the bare wall. It makes the bird look even more fragile, even though it at the same time seems to carry an inner strength.

In short, its luminosity and lyrical simplicity is irresistible. "The Goldfinch" alone is worth a visit to The Hague.

 @SteemSwede

Sources:

Montias, John Michael (1991) Vermeer and His Milieu
Pincus, Lisa (2005) Experiment in Seventeenth-century Dutch Painting: The Art of Carel Fabritius
Schneider, Norbert (2oo3) Still Life