---
title: "Fantastic Bird and Fledglings (c. 1969), Chico da Silva, painting"
description: "Fantastic Bird and Fledglings (c. 1969), Chico da Silva. Gouache on paper, 43 x 59 cm. Painting in the João Cunha Collection."
canonical: https://chicodasilva.org/en/paintings/fantastic-bird-and-fledglings-085/
lang: en
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
translations:
  en: https://chicodasilva.org/en/paintings/fantastic-bird-and-fledglings-085/
  es: https://chicodasilva.org/es/pinturas/ave-fantastica-y-polluelos-085/
  fr: https://chicodasilva.org/fr/peintures/oiseau-fantastique-et-oisillons-085/
  pt: https://chicodasilva.org/pt/pinturas/ave-fantastica-e-filhotes-085/
  ar: https://chicodasilva.org/ar/%D9%84%D9%88%D8%AD%D8%A7%D8%AA/%D8%B7%D8%A7%D8%A6%D8%B1-%D8%AE%D9%8A%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A-%D9%88%D9%81%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AE-085/
  zh-Hans: https://chicodasilva.cn/%E4%BD%9C%E5%93%81/%E5%A5%87%E5%B9%BB%E9%B8%9F%E4%B8%8E%E9%9B%8F%E9%B8%9F-085/
---

# Fantastic Bird and Fledglings

![A huge bird with a hooked, beaded neck and coiled body, perched above four small crested birds. Fantastic Bird and Fledglings, Chico da Silva, c. 1969, gouache on paper.](https://img.chicodasilva.org/jcc-085/chico-da-silva-fantastic-bird-and-fledglings-undated-gouache-on-paper-43x59cm-joao-cunha-collection-jcc-085-chicodasilva.org-640.jpg)

[Download image](https://img.chicodasilva.org/jcc-085/chico-da-silva-fantastic-bird-and-fledglings-undated-gouache-on-paper-43x59cm-joao-cunha-collection-jcc-085-chicodasilva.org-3200.jpg)

Description for blind and low-vision visitors

A horizontal painting almost entirely filled by one enormous bird. Its long neck rises at the left and arches over on itself in a deep hook, banded along its whole length with rows of dots in white, yellow and pale green over black, and studded at intervals with small round medallions of red and blue holding six-pointed stars. The small head at the end of the neck carries a single round eye and a heavy black beak curved like a crescent; a second crescent, in brick red, hangs below it as a wattle. The body is a great rounded mass on the right, worked entirely in beaded lines: coiling spirals in blue, violet and green across the upper half, giving way below to a maze of looping bands in red, ochre and cream, every line built from rows of white, yellow and red dots. A fan of fine hair-like plumes in green, white and pink spreads from the lower right. Two long purple legs, fringed with black barbs, reach down to grip a broad yellow and green form along the bottom edge, marked with two black claw-shaped strokes. Four much smaller birds occupy the lower left, each with a spray of black crest feathers, a spotted body in green, blue, yellow and red, and a splayed tail; one hovers in flight, the others perch. The ground behind is divided into blocks of fine hatched strokes in blue, red, yellow, green and brown, laid down like patches of woven cloth.

- **Artist:** [Chico da Silva](https://chicodasilva.org/en/biography/)
- **Year:** c. 1969
- **Technique:** Gouache on paper
- **Support:** Paper
- **Dimensions:** 43 x 59 cm
- **Motif:** [Birds](https://chicodasilva.org/en/motifs/birds/)
- **Collection:** [João Cunha Collection](https://chicodasilva.org/en/about/)
- **Signature:** FDZILVA, lower right (reversed D)
- **Photo:** João Cunha
- **Inventory no.:** [JCC-085](https://chicodasilva.org/id/jcc-085)
- **Article:** [Primitive, Naïve, Indigenous](https://chicodasilva.org/en/articles/primitive-naif-indigenous/)

## The signature

![Detail of the painted signature: «FDZILVA»](https://img.chicodasilva.org/signatures/chico-da-silva-signature-undated-jcc-085-chicodasilva.org-640.jpg)

*The canvas is signed “FDZILVA”, in the lower right corner. The D is reversed, so it reads as the artist's usual signature, “F. D. Silva”.*

## Provenance

1.  The artist, Fortaleza, c. 1969
2.  Private collection
3.  Galeria Mondrian, gallery, 2026
4.  João Cunha Collection

## How to credit

[Photographs free to reuse, with credit (CC BY 4.0)](https://chicodasilva.org/en/about/#license)

Chico da Silva, “Fantastic Bird and Fledglings” (c. 1969). Photo: João Cunha, João Cunha Collection, CC BY 4.0. https://chicodasilva.org/id/jcc-085

The license covers the photograph, not the painting.

## Also on Wikimedia

-   [Wikidata item](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q140868634)
-   [File on Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chico_da_Silva_-_c._1969_-_Fantastic_Bird_and_Fledglings_-_Gouache_on_paper_-_43x59_cm_-_Jo%C3%A3o_Cunha_Collection.jpg)

## For IIIF viewers

-   [IIIF manifest](https://chicodasilva.org/iiif/jcc-085/manifest.json)