'Nike shoes' spotted in 400-year-old painting has people convinced time travel is real

April 2024 · 3 minute read

Art fans have been left confused after a "Nike shoes" were spotted in a National Gallery painting dating back 400 years.

And the Portrait of a Boy has left them convinced that time travel actually exists. Chaos was unleashed when a mum and daughter duo spotted what appears to be Nike shoes in the image painted by Dutch Master Ferdinand Bol in the 17th century.

It shows an eight-year-old boy standing in the foreground holding a goblet, which he rests on a table adorned with a red cloth, and the boy can be seen sporting a black jacket and cape, a white shirt with ruffled sleeves, auburn socks and black boots.

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However, upon closer inspection, the boots appear to have what looks like a white Nike tick on one side – despite being painted more than 350 years before the brand was founded in 1964.

Eagle-eyed Fiona Foskett, 57, spotted the fresh garbs during a visit to the London gallery with her daughter Holly, 23. Fiona, from the Isle of Wight, said "I said to my daughter, 'Hold on, is he wearing a pair of Nike trainers?'

"Looking at the age, he must have got his hands on the first pair of Nike trainers ever made. Or is he actually a time traveller?"

It is thought the boy in the painting could be Frederick Sluysken, the second cousin of the artist's wife.

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Loving the publicity, but refusing the dampen down the speculation, a spokesman from the National Gallery said: "We are delighted that this picture has been such a hit with our visitors. It resonated with followers when we put out a Tweet asking people to see if they could spot a more 'modern' detail by taking a closer look at the shoes of the eight-year-old boy in the portrait."

This isn't the first time a modern object has been spotted in an antique piece of artwork – earlier this month, art fanatics spotted what appeared to be an iPhone in a painting from nearly 90 years ago.

Umberto Romano painted Mr Pynchon And The Settling Of Springfield in 1937, 70 years before the first edition of the Apple smartphone was released.

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But despite the time discrepancy, fans insist they can see a man in the bottom right corner of the mural holding what looks like a very modern piece of tech to his face, even gripping it in his palm with his thumb free, as you would to stalk your ex's new fling on Instagram or swipe through Tinder.

Many have tried to guess what the mobile-like item could be, with some suggesting it could be a knife or a mirror.

Romano died in 1982 – before most people even had a mobile phone – so sadly we'll never know what the primitive piece of tech was supposed to be.

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