Jacopo de' Barbari, 'A Sparrowhawk', 1510s
About the work
Overview
This picture of a female sparrowhawk is one of two known paintings of birds by the Venetian artist Jacopo de' Barbari, who worked in the noble courts of Germany and the Netherlands. It is a probably a fragment of a larger painting made quite late in Jacopo’s life, perhaps when he was working in the Netherlands.
The bird is painted alive, bathed in bright natural light – the lean creature and its perch cast a strong shadow on the wall. A small bell just above its left foot would alert its handler to its whereabouts as it was flying. It is tied by a slender piece of rope, but its bright eye shows how keenly alert it is to the world.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- A Sparrowhawk
- Artist
- Jacopo de' Barbari
- Artist dates
- active 1500; died 1516?
- Date made
- 1510s
- Medium and support
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 17.8 × 10.8 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Layard Bequest, 1916
- Inventory number
- NG3088
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
- Frame
- 16th-century Italian Frame
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
-
2010Apelles am Fürstenhof: Facetten der Hofkunst um 1500 im Alten ReichKunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg22 August 2010 - 7 November 2010
-
2010Jan Gossaert's RenaissanceThe National Gallery (London)23 February 2011 - 30 May 2011
-
2012Titian's First Masterpiece: The Flight Into EgyptThe National Gallery (London)4 April 2012 - 19 August 2012
-
2018Tacita Dean: STILL LIFEThe National Gallery (London)15 March 2018 - 28 May 2018
-
2021The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Dürer's Journeys: Travels of a Renaissance ArtistThe National Gallery (London)20 November 2021 - 27 February 2022
Bibliography
-
1951Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
-
1986Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.