Venetian artist placing boy behind bird (6)
I believe the answer is:
titian
'venetian artist' is the definition.
(painter and member of the Venetian school)
'boy behind bird' is the wordplay.
'boy' becomes 'ian' (man's name).
'behind' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'bird' becomes 'tit' (tit is a kind of bird).
'ian' put after 'tit' is 'TITIAN'.
'placing' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for titian that I've seen before include "Painter of 16th century" , "Italian Old Master and colour" , "Italian painter, d. 1576" , "Sixteenth cenntury Italian painter" , "(Of hair) bright golden auburn; painter" .)