The Concert of the Birds

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Waking up to bird song is one of the great joys in life. Whether it's the 'tweet of the day' just before the 6am BBC news or the sound of birds gathering on the lawn at home in Italy looking to catch early worms.

Birdsong also caught the imagination of the Flemish artist Frans Snyders, who painted a number of versions of 'The Concert of Birds' Here we can see birds being led in their song by a wise owl perching on some sheet music. Larger birds protect the choir at the sides of the canvas, while others like the hoopoe are captured in flight.

These paintings (and the keeping of aviaries) became fashionable among aristocratic seventeenth centurySpanish collectors, so much so that four have made it into the Prado's collection.

These portrayals of birds from across the world may well have been intended as sophisticated allegories of the sense of hearing. Yet they may also have carried religious connotations. On his death Snyders requested to be buried in Franciscan habit, and it is St Francis who is perhaps the exemplar of the value of conversing with the morning chorus!