A Boy
by Marcus Gheeraerts the younger c.1608
The child in this portrait wears a bodice and skirt over a farthingale frame. This was the fashion for dressing boys until they were ‘breeched’ (dressed in breeches or trousers) at the age of five or six.
In his left hand he holds a bunch of flowers and a string attached to a robin. The flowers are pansies and signified innocence and transience whilst birds are thought to symbolise the human soul flying away at the moment of death.
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