Four Vultures of Different Kinds

The Belvedere describes this canvas as a group portrait, and the four vultures do stand like sitters. They are not all the same kind of bird. The dark brown one with the shaggy ruff is a cinereous vulture, found from Spain across to Central Asia. The one with the bare red head and a grey collar of feathers is a king vulture, a bird of the tropical Americas. The other two are griffons, one species painted at two ages. The young bird is a warm brown with a ruff of long pointed feathers, while the adult has turned pale, with a soft white collar. Hamilton signed the picture on a stone in the bottom corner and dated it 1723, the year the Upper Belvedere was completed. It was made to hang above a door in the palace's state bedroom.