The Giustiniani Longo Children (?)

For a long time these boys were known as the Balbi Children, because the painting came down through that Genoese family. The National Gallery now names them, with a question mark, as the brothers Alessandro, Vincenzo and Francesco Maria Giustiniani Longo, born in 1617, 1619 and 1624. Van Dyck painted them in Genoa in 1626 or 1627, so the youngest was only two or three. He still wears a baby's long dress and clutches a small bird clumsily in his fist, while his middle brother lays a protective hand on his shoulder. The eldest stands a little apart, formal with a dress sword at his hip. They are dressed in the Spanish fashion, satin, velvet and brocade trimmed with silver and gold braid. On the lowest step stand two choughs, tame birds with bells on their legs, meant as signs of education and loyalty.