A Boy with a Bird
- Artist: Titian
- Date: probably 1520s
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Museum: The National Gallery
- Collection record: The National Gallery website
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About this artwork
This is "A Boy with a Bird" by Titian. Painted in the Italian north during the 1520s, this charming piece is characteristic of Titian's work from that period, despite some initially puzzling features.
Recent evidence suggests that the painting was not created as a copy or pastiche, but rather as an original work. X-radiographs reveal that the boy once had wings, which were later painted over, and that there's another composition beneath the paint layers. This earlier picture relates to Titian's woodcut "Landscape with a Milkmaid", dated around 1523.
The design of "A Boy with a Bird" seems to be related to a lost "Venus and Adonis" by Titian from the 1520s. It appears that this painting was created in Titian's workshop, giving new life to a motif extracted from his innovative work.
See it in person
A Boy with a Bird hangs in The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
