The Goldsmith

This statue is an allegory of Charity. The Dutch hammered on this virtue throughout the 1600s, even posting public donation boxes for the poor. Rembrandt used the theme to comment on the intimate connection between artists and their craft. Wearing a craftsman’s apron, the smith slowly adds his finishing touches, in no hurry to have his creation leave his shop. He shows his Charity group the tenderness of a parent, and Charity gives to him the rewards of his creativity. Rembrandt printed this miraculous little work on a golden, slightly iridescent Japanese paper made from the gampi plant. He apparently got hold of nearly all of the rare gampi paper that reached Holland in the 1640s.