‘The Goldfinch’ by Carel Fabritius is the most looked at bird in the history of art. The world behind this apparent small painting is much larger than you would suspect. It inspired people and artists for centuries and still does to this day. The song of the Goldfinch inspired Composer Antonio Vivaldi to write Il Gardellino and the novel: ‘The Goldfinch’ written by Donna Tart is based on the painting. But there is so much more to discover. Did you know that in Dutch they’re called ‘Puttertjes’? Meaning: ‘little water drawers’, this comes from a trick you can teach them: to draw water with a miniature bucket. The website takes you on a bird’s eye view journey through the life of The Goldfinch, which unfolds before your eyes.

In line with the strategy we developed for the Mauritshuis: to paint a picture of the Golden Age, we bring the story behind known and lesser known paintings to a great and international audience to get them acquainted with the museum. First and foremost we wanted to make the story behind ‘The Goldfinch’ accessible for virtual visitors throughout the world. This called for an approach where the experience of the site on any platform should be equally good. We wanted to give the viewer the feeling that they would really take a plunge into the painting and bring it to life. So we left as much room possible for exploring, looking and intuitively discover all the stories behind the painting. We’ve reduced unnecessary interface and excess scrolling to eliminate any distraction. We had 4 months and a tight budget of 50K to complete the project. We started in November 2016 with extensive research for content and mapping a rudimentary UX. This was quickly followed by design, front and backend development for all platforms and extensive testing until the 9th February – the official launch date. The real challenge was to build the architecture of chapters, blocks and hotspots that would react to the scroll and have their own animations, but still seamlessly scroll into the next section. The website consists of 9 different layers and lets the viewer experience the complete story of ‘The Goldfinch’. These layers represented stand alone parts of the story that could freely be shared via Owned and Social Media. The magnum opus is the actual painting on display in the Mauritshuis. All channels led to the stimulus of going to see the masterpiece in the museum.

The average time spent on site is 4 minutes and 40 seconds. In a time where people’s attention is so scarce because of the many incitements this is a great success. You discover the unexpected stories behind the painting and get acquainted with the museum at the same time. In the end every online visitor is a visitor for the Mauritshuis. The Goldfinch and the Mauritshuis get the attention they deserve and this deepens the perception of the collection of the Mauritshuis and motivates people to come and experience the actual painting in real life.