Laura Cumming suggests that a painting of one of these animals survived because it was still wet in the 2023 book Thunderclap. One of these animals nestles below Mary’s breast in Leonardo’s Madonna Litta as a common symbol for the Passion and the Resurrection. A thin chain holds one of these animals to a feeder in a painting whose creator died in the 1654 Delft gunpowder explosion. One of these animals titles a painting in which Mary sits on a rock and holds an open book with one hand. A Carel Fabritius painting of one of these animals is rescued from a bombing at the Met in a 2014 novel by Donna Tartt. In a 1505 painting, one of these animals perches on the finger of an infant John the Baptist. For 10 points, a Raphael Madonna is titled for what small, colorful bird? ■END■
ANSWER: goldfinches [or Carduelis carduelis; accept The Goldfinch, Het puttertje, Madonna of the Goldfinch, or Madonna del Cardellino; prompt on birds or finches] (Goldfinches seem to have become associated with the Passion through the Crown of Thorns, because they eat thistle seeds.)
<Visual Fine Arts>
= Average correct buzz position