Bearded Man with a Falcon

Lazzaro Bastiani was a Venetian painter active in the late fifteenth century who worked alongside the Bellini family. This Bearded Man with a Falcon in the Courtauld Gallery reflects the portrait conventions of the Venetian aristocracy, where falconry was a mark of noble status and leisure. Tempera on panel suited the precise, layered technique expected by ecclesiastical and private patrons across Europe.

The portrait combines the warm Venetian palette with careful attention to the sitter's features and the falcon he holds, rendered in the atmospheric oil technique of the late-fifteenth-century Venetian school.