Portrait of a boy as Daifilo in an orange cloak, with a bird

Portrait of a Boy as Daifilo from 1671 by Nicolaes Maes depicts a child in the guise of Granida's shepherd lover from Hooft's pastoral play, likely a pendant to a Granida portrait. The literary portrait convention was especially popular for children. Maes trained with Rembrandt in Amsterdam in the early 1650s before establishing himself as an independent master. His mature portrait style absorbed Flemish elegance — producing fashionable likenesses with looser brushwork and warmer flesh tones ...

The pastoral costume transforms the boy into the literary character, rendered with Maes's characteristic naturalness within the theatrical conceit.