putto

Putti redirects here, For the town in Uganda, see Putti, Uganda.

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Sleeping Putto by Léon Bazile Perrault

"Putto with Dolphin" fountain by Andrea del Verrocchio. Copy of the c. 1470 Florentine 125 cm bronze fountain that is the property of Art Gallery of Ontario.

The putto (pl. putti) is a figure of a human baby or toddler, almost always male, often naked and having wings, found especially in Italian Renaissance and Baroque art. The figure derives from ancient art but was rediscovered in the early Quattrocento. Strictly, putti are distinct from cherubim,^[1], but modern English usage has blurred the distinction, except that in the plural, "the Cherubim" refers to the literal biblical angels, while "cherubs" is used more often to refer to the childlike representations (putti)^[2] or in figurative senses.^[3]

Etymology

The word putto is Italian singular male; the plural is putti. The female is putta but is not used since it is the short form of puttana ("slut", "whore"); this derogatory meaning is retained in the closely-related Spanish vulgarity, "puta", Spanish short form for "prostitute".)

In early modern Italian, the word simply meant "child"; today it is used only with the specific meaning of a winged, child-like figure in art. In descriptions of art, some of the first known references to the word appear in Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists (1550/68).

However, putto seems to have acquired its meaning as a specific term in art history only during the modern period.^{[citation needed]}

Visual History

Putti with Venus (c. 1750), painting by François Boucher (Wallace Collection, London).

Revival of the putto in the Renaissance

Putti are a classical motif found primarily on child sarcophagi of the 2nd century, where they are depicted fighting, dancing, participating in bacchic rites, playing sports, etc.

The revival of the figure of the putto is generally attributed to Donatello, in Florence in the 1420s, although there are some earlier manifestations (for example the tomb of Ilaria del Carretto, sculpted by Jacopo della Quercia in Lucca).

Where to find putti

Putti, cupids, and angels (see below) can be found in both religious and secular art from the 1420s in Italy, the turn of the 16th century in the Netherlands and Germany, the Mannerist period and late Renaissance in France, and throughout Baroque ceiling frescoes. So many artists have depicted them that a list would be pointless, but among the best-known are the sculptor Donatello and the painter Raphael. The two relaxed and curious putti who appear at the foot of Raphael's Sistine Madonna are often reproduced.

They also experienced a major revival in the 19th century, where they gamboled through paintings by French academic painters, from Gustave Doré’s illustrations for Orlando Furioso to advertisements.

In the twentieth century, putti appeared in Walt Disney's Fantasia.

Iconography of the putto

The iconography of putti is deliberately unfixed, so that it is difficult to tell the difference between putti, cupids, and various forms of angels. They have no unique, immediately identifiable attributes, so that putti may have many meanings and roles in the context of art.

Some of the more common associations are:

• associations with Aphrodite, and so with romantic – or erotic – love
• associations with Heaven
• associations with peace, prosperity, mirth, and leisure

Historiography

The historiography of this subject matter is very short. Many art historians have commented on the importance of the putto in art but few have undertaken a major study. One useful scholarly examination is Charles Dempsey's Inventing the Renaissance Putto (University of North Carolina Press, 2001).

Gallery

Triumph of Galatea (1511), by Raffael (Villa Farnesina, Rome)	Festival of Venus (c. 1635) by Peter Paul Rubens (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)	Justice (1684-1686), fresco by Luca Giordano (Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, Florence)	Gustave Doré's illustration of Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso (1877)
Return of Spring (1886), William-Adolphe Bouguereau	St. Thomas Writing on the Holy Sacrament (1662), Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Basilica of Saint Dominic, Bologna)	Eros and Psyche (1873), William-Adolphe Bouguereau	Putto with trumpet and skull, Sedlec Ossuary, Czech Republic.
Putti holding crown of Queen Elizabeth I of England (c. 1620), Artist Unknown	A putto kills a basilisk, symbolic of Swedish occupiers and Protestant heresy, on the Mariensäule, Munich, erected in 1638

Notes

1. ^ Art historian Juan Carlos Martinez writes: "Originally, Cherubs and Putti had distinctly different roles, with the former being sacred, and the latter, profane. That is, Cherubs and Seraphs (Cherubim, Seraphim) are Angels, occupying the highest angelic orders in Heaven and are thus the closest to God. On the other hand, Putti, arise from Greco-Roman classical mythos (i.e., non-Christian). They are associated with Eros/Cupid as well as with the Muse, Erato; the muse of lyric and love poetry... "Putti – which comes from the Latin, putus, meaning 'little man' – are...not so much babies as they are 'not human'. They are spiritual beings and thus depicted in their typically odd fashion; as winged little people of indeterminate gender. Using babies as models for Putti (or for Cherubs, either) doesn't quite get across the true concept of 'Putti-ness' as they (babies) are too guileless, for one thing, whereas Putti are clever and purposeful. They are there to help Cupid/Eros facilitate the onset of profane love – or secular, non-religious love, as between two people, rather than the love as between a human and God. Probably, it was artists' attempts to avoid simply painting babies that has led to so many rather odd and, often, ugly, Putti. Sometimes they nailed it, sometimes not. "By the time the Baroque Era came about, which might arguably have been the high point for Cherubim and Putti, both of these little beings were usually being depicted in the same way. Which one they were, simply depended upon the theme of the painting or sculpture: If religious (sacred) – they were Cherubs. If secular or mythic (profane) – they were Putti. "In either case, they'd be hard to pull off successfully today because most people are unaware of their roles in semiotics, or in philosophy/mythology/history, or in religion." (Martinez, Juan Carlos. "What's With the Cherubs?" ARChives - Essays and Information on Art by Today's Experts and Professionals. Art Renewal Center, 10/5/2004[1])
2. ^ Garner, A Dictionary of Modern American Usage, p. 117,
3. ^ Fowler's Modern English Usage, 2nd ed.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Putti

• Sacred-profane dichotomy